PITTSBURGH — The prosecution presented five witnesses Tuesday who testified that state Sen. Jane Orie ordered them to ignore their legislative duties and focus on campaign-related tasks for herself and her sister.

One witness, former Orie chief of staff Jamie Pavlot, alleged the state senator sent her a text message urging her to "cover ourselves" after accusations surfaced of misconduct, an accusation backed by court documents displayed on a projector.

The five witnesses, all former staff members who worked for Orie at various times in the past 10 years, testified during the second day of a preliminary hearing before Judge Donna Jo McDaniel.

Orie, R-40th, and her sister, Janine, are charged with theft of services from the state because they allegedly directed the senator's state-paid employees to work on campaigns for both Jane Orie and a third sister, state Supreme Court Justice Joan Orie Melvin.

State-paid workers are not permitted to engage in political campaign work while they're on the clock, and the allegations suggest Orie engaged in a direct violation of state ethics laws as far back as 2001.

The most intriguing testimony came from Pavlot, who said she directed staffers for more than nine years to participate in door-knocking initiatives, signature petition drives and other related activities "through the directive of the senator," referring to Orie.

Pavlot said a majority of this activity occurred in the months before November elections and that Orie directed her staffers to put up yard signs and to organize and attend fundraisers for Melvin, who ran successfully for the state Supreme Court in 2009.

Asked by Orie attorney William Costopoulos, Pavlot said she knew such activity was illegal but she did so under the direction of her boss and Orie's sister, Janine.

"We knew that if Janine said to do something, we were to follow her directive," Pavlot said. "If we didn't, someone would be upset."

Pavlot also described the aftermath that occurred when a University of Pittsburgh intern resigned from Orie's office in October and submitted a handwritten complaint to the Allegheny County District Attorney's office alleging widespread misuse of state resources.

It was that complaint that triggered the investigation against the Orie sisters.

According to court documents, Orie ordered Pavlot to furnish office space on the second level of her district office on McKnight Road to make it look like a campaign office had been there.

The state senator also sent a scathing letter to the intern, and letters to the intern's professors and to University of Pittsburgh Chancellor Mark Nordenberg saying the intern "misinterpreted" activities and that no political work had taken place in her office.

Orie called herself a "veteran prosecutor" who "championed reform" in terms of state ethics laws and the statement made by the intern included "baseless, slanderous and untrue allegations."

Pavlot said under testimony that, although she typed the letter for Orie and mailed it to the intern, she knew the allegations were true.

Costopoulos countered and presented documentation that showed at least one Orie staffer engaged in political work during his spare time, not while on the state's clock.

He said that worker had accumulated at least 50 hours of compensatory time accrued by working overtime and that the worker was there of his own accord during one of the times in question and broke no laws in doing so.

He also presented several documents that showed Orie and Pavlot had conversations over e-mail about the necessity of keeping political work out of the legislative office.

Costopoulos showed the court several of these correspondences on a large projector that showed Orie had reprimanded several staff members and told them to keep campaign-related materials in their personal e-mails and to take campaign-related phone calls out of the office.

Regardless, testimony continued to flow from several staffers who all alleged they worked on political campaigns when they should have been working on legislative duties. All of the staffers testified under immunity from prosecution.

Christine Bahr, a staffer from 1998 to 2005, said she was often directed to call donors and impersonate Orie while soliciting money for campaigns. She said she hated doing so and called the act "extremely distasteful" but complied with the wishes of Orie.

Joseph Smith, another former staffer who is currently a law clerk for Butler County President Judge Thomas Doerr, said he too participated in an array of campaign-related activities under the direction of Orie.

He also alleged he was directed by Orie to do phone banking during the re-election campaign of former President George W. Bush in 2004, all while being paid by the state government.

After Smith said he sometimes spent 50 percent of his workday on campaign-related material, Costopoulos asked him if he really was on state time or if he undertook those activities during his comp time, off the state's clock.

"When I worked for the senator, I did what the senator asked me to do," Smith said. "Comp time wasn't something I took a lot of."

Smith also said he did work for the Committee to Re-Elect Jane Orie.

Most notably, he said, he was directed to compose a memo to Butler attorney Tom King seeking payment to cover the cost of invitations and postage sent to donors who attended a campaign fundraiser at the Butler Country Club in 2005.

Costopoulos later presented documents that showed Orie scolded Smith for engaging in improper activities at the legislative office and that the state senator suggested Pavlot call him into her office and formally reprimand him.

Orie's reprimand, sent to Pavlot over e-mail, told the chief of staff to remind Smith that he's not to engage in illegal activity on a state senate-owned computer.

Audrey Rasmussen, a former staffer from Orie's Cranberry Township office, also alleged she sometimes spent up to 45 percent of her workday involved in campaign-related tasks for Orie.

She said she eventually complained to Pavlot that she didn't feel comfortable undertaking such activities, after which she said she was ostracized in the office and given less and less work to do until she quit in 2009.

The preliminary hearing is expected to end today. McDaniel will decide whether enough evidence exists to send the case to trial.