HARRISBURG -- Fresh from being fingerprinted and still in handcuffs, former state House Speaker John Perzel vowed yesterday to fight 82 criminal charges filed against him in a government corruption investigation.

Mr. Perzel spoke briefly with reporters as he entered a Dauphin County district judge's office for arraignment.

"This investigation has gone on for a long time. There are hundreds of allegations that have been made. I am looking forward to proving my innocence in court," said Mr. Perzel, the only one of the case's 10 Republican defendants to speak to reporters yesterday.

He said nothing on his way out of court and into a black Mercedes, accompanied by his lawyers, Brian McMonagle and Fortunato Perri, both of Philadelphia.

The 10 defendants are associated with the House Republican caucus and were charged as part of a two-year grand jury investigation that previously yielded 12 arrests in the House Democratic caucus last year.

The investigation became known as Bonusgate because it was spurred by allegations that House Democrats used taxpayer-funded bonuses to reward staffers for work on political campaigns.

While Democrats are charged with using state funds to pay employees to do campaign labor, Republicans allegedly used taxpayer funds to buy computers and develop sophisticated software that would analyze voter behavior and send targeted campaign messages, said Attorney General Tom Corbett, whose office is prosecuting both groups of defendants.

District Judge William Wenner set Mr. Perzel's bail at $100,000 and released the 15-term Philadelphia Republican when he posted the required 10 percent bond.

The two alleged chief co-conspirators, Brian Preski and Brett Feese, also were arraigned and released under similar bail arrangements. Mr. Preski is Mr. Perzel's former chief of staff and a Philadelphia lawyer. Mr. Feese is a former state representative from Lycoming County who spent the last three years as chief counsel to the House Republican caucus.

Mr. Preski's attorney, Bill Winning, was one of the few who argued for lower bail.

"There's not a chance in the whole world he's not going to appear at hearings to defend himself from these charges," Mr. Winning said.

Judge Wenner agreed that Mr. Preski and the other defendants aren't likely to flee. However, he said he wanted bail to be consistent with amounts set by Dauphin County District Justice Joseph Solomon, who last year arraigned 12 Democrats charged in an earlier phase of the Bonusgate investigation.

Mr. Feese was the only defendant yesterday who did not first go to the Lower Dauphin Township police station to be fingerprinted, handcuffed and transported to court by officers. Instead, he went directly to the district justice's office to avoid what his lawyer, Joshua Lock of Harrisburg, called "gratuitous medieval cruelty."

Mr. Lock said such harsh treatment of defendants was "last seen during the French revolution." He said handcuffs are usually reserved for defendants accused of violent crimes.

Prosecutor Ken Brown said he was surprised Mr. Feese defied orders from the state attorney general's office to report to the police station.

He said it is routine to handcuff defendants in serious cases. "A felony is a felony. If you're [charged as] a felon, you get cuffed," he said.

Mr. Lock said Mr. Feese would not be making a plea deal with prosecutors. "We are going to trial," he told reporters. He said it could be a long trial. "Book your hotel rooms now," he advised.

Mr. Perzel is poised for a court battle, too.

"This is the beginning of a long journey and it starts today," Mr. McMonagle, one of Mr. Perzel's attorneys, told reporters outside the courtroom.

Mr. Perzel ignored questions from reporters who wanted to know whether he intended to resign from the House.

Of the other defendants, only two still work for the caucus, John Zimmerman, who works for Mr. Perzel's office, and Jill Seaman, who had been secretary to Mr. Feese until his abrupt resignation last week. Mr. Zimmerman and Ms. Seaman have been suspended without pay or benefits.

Five defendants in the case had bail set at $50,000 unsecured, which means they were released without posting any money. Those five are: Ms. Seaman; legislative aides Elmer "Al" Bowman and Don McClintock; Samuel "Buzz" Stokes, the brother-in-law Mr. Perzel put on state payroll allegedly to run campaigns; and Eric Ruth of Boca Raton, Fla., another Perzel relative accused of working on campaigns

Two defendants -- Mr. Zimmerman and former Perzel chief of staff Paul Towhey -- were released on $1,000 unsecured bond each.

Conditions of bail require all 10 defendants to turn over their passports and to distance themselves from potential witnesses in the case.

Preliminary hearings are scheduled for later this month but will likely be postponed until early next year, Judge Wenner said.

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