December 1, 2004
Mezzatesta seeks pay for day of court date
Page 2 of 2
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On those days, legislators get paid $150 a day for doing legislative business at the Capitol when the Legislature isn't in session. The select lawmakers may collect extra duty pay for up to 30 days a year. They also get paid during legislative meetings.

Mezzatesta, 57, was defeated by a Republican newcomer in the Nov. 2 election. His term officially ended at midnight Tuesday.

State employees said Mezzatesta cleaned out his office on Sunday. He told House workers Monday that he planned to meet briefly with his former lawyer, Richard Lindroth, who also serves as lead counsel to Kiss at the House.

House Education Committee member Ray Canterbury, R-Greenbrier, was in the House payroll office Monday when Mezzatesta walked in and submitted his duty day payment and expense forms. Mezzatesta is seeking $987 in reimbursement for his three-day visit to Charleston.

"He barely spoke," Canterbury recalled Tuesday. "He was handing in some forms. I don't know what else he was doing at the Capitol."

Mezzatesta and his wife dropped off his office keys at the House clerk's office Monday afternoon. Clerk's office employees sent a farewell card to Mezzatesta last week.

"He was always a friend to us," said House Clerk Greg Gray. "He supported us through the years."

Mezzatesta's critics, meanwhile, said the delegate's decision to request reimbursement on the same day he appeared in magistrate court was "typical Jerry Mezzatesta."

"The gall of this man. He's sticking it to the taxpayers until the end," said Wanda Carney, co-director of West Virginia Wants to Know, a state-government watch group. "Bob Kiss needs to step up and finally do something for the taxpayers and say, 'Enough is enough.'"

Also Tuesday, Carney filed a revised ethics complaint against Mezzatesta and a new complaint against Mezzatesta's wife. The complaint alleges that the Mezzatestas were doing private business for Viking Vending Services on House computers. Mary Lou Mezzatesta owns two-thirds of the company, according to Lottery Commission records.

The Ethics Commission also continues to investigate allegations that Mezzatesta improperly solicited grants for Hampshire schools, where he works at a board office administrator.

Mezzatesta is currently off work on sick leave. Earlier this month, he announced he has prostate cancer.

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Jerry Mezzatesta was one of West Virginia's most powerful politicians. But Mezzatesta's 18-year reign in the state Legislature came to an abrupt end last year. In a series of articles, Gazette reporter Eric Eyre exposed Mezzatesta's lies and abuses, one after another, until the affair culminated with criminal sentences for Mezzatesta and his wife. Earlier this year, the stories won a first place award from the Education Writers Association, and an Investigative Reporters and Editors Medal, the journalism group's top prize for investigative reporting in America. Here's a sampling of Eyre's stories.
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