PITTSBURGH -- The case against a former Allegheny County coroner has taken many twists and turns in Pittsburgh federal court, which is why WTAE Channel 4 Action News reporter Bob Mayo put together some highlights from the trial.

Each day, Mayo has been blogging witness-by-witness from Dr. Cyril Wecht's trial in Pittsburgh. Here, here he expands on some of the recent blog entries.

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Watch Mayo's Report

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Prosecutors said Wecht, 76, illegally used Allegheny County workers to cut costs in his private practice, which grossed nearly $9 million from 1997 through 2004. He never made more than $64,000 a year as county coroner.

During the trial, Wecht's defense attorney, Jerry McDevitt, questioned coroner's employee Kathy McCabe about an FBI agent's tactics.

"Palm Sunday of 2005. What happened?" asked McDevitt.

McCabe's answer was that her doorbell rang. It was early on a Sunday morning. She wasn't going to answer; because she thought it was children. But when she looked outside, she said she saw a black car. She said she was worried something happened to her daughter, so she went down and said she found FBI agent Brad Orsini, who proceeded to question her for about an hour.

McCabe said the agent told her he knows her Social Security number and where her son works.

"He said, 'Do you know why Martha Stewart went to jail?'"

McCave said she thought it had something to do with Stewart's stocks. But the agent told her, "No. It was because she lied."

McCabe said the whole conversation made her very nervous.

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At the end of the first week of Wecht's trial, the judge treated jurors to cake, promising them one a month. Cake appeared again in the second week of the trial.

"During a 10-minute break in the case, I was out in the hallway having a court employee offered me some cake, which I started to take," said Mayo. "She said it was from the judge. Well, you don't want to take things from people who you're covering. But I didn't want to be rude. I had the cake. I went into the courtroom. Another reporter told me, 'Were you here for the cake business?' I didn't know what had happened inside the courtroom. As it turned out, the court employee, before the trial resumed, offered cake to all the back row of reporters. Two accepted. Two did not. So, I guess I was the tiebreaker."

Mayo joked that perhaps he'd have to recluse himself from the case, having accepted something, but that didn't happen.

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