A former state rep. pleads guilty over no show jobs.

HARRISBURG - A former state representative from western Pennsylvania pleaded guilty this morning to conflict-of-interest charges for putting two relatives on his legislative payroll in no-work jobs.

In a deal with prosecutors, Frank LaGrotta avoided a jail sentence, but must repay the state $27,092 and serve three years probation, the first six months of which will be on house arrest wearing an ankle monitoring device.

Leaving the Dauphin County Courthouse today after he was sentenced, LaGrotta was contrite.

"I want to apologize to the people of Pennsylvania and I want to say that this has been an unfortunate situation for which I take full responsibility," said LaGrotta, who also must pay a $10,000 fine.

LaGrotta, a Democrat who served 20 years in the state House representing Lawrence County, was charged in November in a "ghost employee" scheme for arranging to have his niece and sister hired as his legislative aides in jobs for which they did little or no work.

LaGrotta's niece, Alissa Lemmon, and his sister, Ann Bartolomeo, both pleaded no contest to a count of false swearing for lying to a grand jury and were fined $3,000 apiece. Lemmon was placed on 18 months probation; her mother, Bartolomeo, 12 months.

The criminal charges against LaGrotta were the first and to date only ones to grow out of an inquiry by the attorney general that includes whether taxpayer-funded bonuses were paid to legislative staffers for campaign work.

Anthony J. Krastek, senior deputy Attorney General, said he was pleased with the sentence, adding that it reflected LaGrotta's level of cooperation in a broader public corruption investigation. He would not elaborate.

LaGrotta lost his seat in 2006 amid voter anger over legislative pay raises.