NORRISTOWN, Pa. _ When Wanda Scheib read the criminal complaint against her boss last August, she felt uncomfortable.
Her discomfort was not only because she worked for Attorney General Kathleen Kane.
Scheib was worried, she testified Thursday in Kane's criminal trial at the Montgomery County Courthouse, because she knew something that could puncture Kane's defense.
As an administrative assistant and notary, Scheib had notarized a grand jury secrecy oath for Kane _ one that the criminal complaint said Kane had told a grand jury she never signed.
"I struggled with it," Scheib said. "Do I say something or don't I?"
It took several days to decide what to do, she said.
"She's the head of our agency," Scheib said, speaking quietly and nervously from the witness stand. "The only people who sign the oaths are upper management. What's going to happen to me if I say something?"
Ultimately, she went to Bruce Beemer, who was then Kane's top deputy and "somebody I knew I could trust."
She told him about the oaths and Beemer helped her turn the information over to the Montgomery County District Attorney's Office, which had been investigating Kane. Scheib's notary records prompted prosecutors to bring another perjury charge against Kane.
Kane, 50, is charged with perjury, obstruction, and other crimes. Prosecutors say she illegally leaked secret grand jury materials dating back to 2009 to embarrass a political rival. For months, a linchpin of Kane's defense had been her contention that she was a "stay at home mom" in 2009 and had never signed a secrecy oath for that period.
Under cross examination Thursday, Scheib said she had suffered no retaliation for speaking out to prosecutors.
Also Thursday morning, Kane's defense lawyers concluded their cross examination of Adrian King, Kane's former top deputy and longtime friend. King testified that he left the envelope containing confidential grand jury materials for a political consultant to pick up _ but he insisted he did not know at the time what was inside it.
From the witness stand King accused Kane _ more than once _ of trying to set him up and pin a crime on him.
Seth Farber, one of Kane's lawyers, asked King if he has been repeating his version of events since the leak investigation began.
"I've testified truthfully to that and that's all I've done time and time again," King said.
