Brett Cott

The preliminary hearing for the Democrats charged in the Bonusgate investigation is scheduled for next week, but a lawsuit could change that. Longtime political activist Brett Cott has filed a motion that will delay the hearings until after the General Election.

Former House Minority Whip Mike Veon (D-Beaver County) is led to his arraignment in handcuffs.: Politicker Photo

HARRISBURG -- Eleven of the House Democratic Caucus members implicated Thursday in "Bonusgate" arrived Friday morning at Magisterial District Judge Joseph Solomon's office across the street from the Susquehanna River.

They were in handcuffs.

That was perhaps the most surprising aspect, and certainly most jarring visual, of an otherwise typical series of arraignments, at least as typical as it gets the day after Attorney General Tom Corbett revealed one of the biggest scandals in Pennsylvania political history.