PITTSBURGH—Legal experts say former Republican state Sen. Jane Orie could learn that cover-ups are often more damaging than the underlying crimes when she's sentenced Monday on charges she used her state-funded legislative staff to perform campaign work and covered up her misdeeds with forged documents.

"The jury found her guilty of forging documents entered into evidence at trial, a shocking, outrageous, and contemptuous criminal act," said University of Pittsburgh law professor John Burkoff, who has followed her case closely.

Orie was convicted of using her taxpayer-funded staff to do political and campaign work since 2001, tampering with evidence and committing forgery by introducing documents at her first trial to discredit the key witness against her. The discovery of the fake documents prompted a mistrial last year and some of the newer criminal charges she was convicted of in March.

State sentencing guidelines suggest Allegheny County Judge Jeffrey Manning could sentence the 50-year-old Orie to probation or some sort of house arrest on three counts of theft of services, and two conflict of interest charges—all five are felonies—which are the most serious of the 14 counts she faces.

But Manning may impose one to two years in prison on each of the felonies if he determines that Orie deserves to be sentenced in the "aggravated" range of the guidelines, which experts tell The Associated Press could be appropriate given Orie wasn't just a legislator sworn to uphold the law but a former county and state prosecutor who most certainly understood the fraud she was perpetrating on the court.

"If there ever was an aggravating factor in a sentencing proceeding, this is it," Burkoff said of the forgeries. "And there has been no expression of contrition on the former senator's part to offset even slightly the gravity of these convictions. Her reaction so far has been just vituperation and bombast. That is not a positive sentencing profile, to put it mildly. The bottom line? I think she's facing serious time in prison."

Orie's attorney, William Costopoulos, hasn't returned requests for comment. In a memorandum filed last week, Allegheny County Deputy Attorney General Lawrence Claus didn't argue for a specific sentence but rather focused on his argument that Orie should be ordered to pay $780,000 to the Commonwealth, triple the amount Claus contends the illegal political work was worth to Orie.

Claus is expected to ask that Orie be sentenced to prison and that at least some of the felony sentences run consecutively, which could result in a sentence of up to three to six years in prison.

If that occurs, Orie could receive as much time as former state Reps. Bill DeWeese, the House Democratic leader, and John Perzel, the Republican House speaker, who were among the key players in separate illegal campaign scandals in Harrisburg.

DeWeese is serving 2 1/2 to five years in prison for a scandal nicknamed "bonusgate" because it involved the payment of secret, state-sanctioned bonuses to legislative staff members who did campaign work like Orie's staff.

Perzel received the same sentence for a scam nicknamed "computergate" in which the GOP House caucus used taxpayer funded computer software for campaign and electioneering work.

Burkoff and another expert who has followed Orie's case closely, Duquesne University law professor Bruce Ledewitz, have said Orie's case is piddly compared to the Harrisburg scandals—more than a dozen people were convicted in "bonusgate" and four others went down with Perzel.

"The conduct she was actually convicted of is less," Ledewitz said. "On the other hand, those other cases do not involve allegations and convictions of forgery. That takes the charges against Orie to another level, in my opinion."

Orie's case also has other ramifications—financial and familial.

Prosecutors want her to repay $1.3 million in GOP caucus legal bills to represent her and to comply with voluminous searches of Senate email records used to convict her, though Ledewitz believes that's unlikely to happen. That's on top of the $780,000 Claus is seeking in treble damages for the value of the political work Orie received, which her attorney argued in a court filing was really worth about $25,000.

Orie's case also indirectly affects her family. Orie was charged— but acquitted—of directing her staff to campaign for her sister, state Supreme Court Justice Joan Orie Melvin, when Melvin lost a bid for the state's highest court in 2003 and won a seat in 2009.

Melvin, 59, and a third sister, Janine, 57, remain charged with directing Melvin's former Superior Court staffs to do campaign work for Melvin, too.

Melvin faces a preliminary hearing on those charges Friday and is suspended from the court. Janine Orie, who faces charges that she directed Sen. Orie's staff to do political work for Melvin at last year's mistrial, is scheduled for retrial in August on those charges and newer counts that she directed Melvin's Superior Court staff to do political work, too.