Corman said the Senate has an obligation to find out if either the state police or Gaming Control Board was being untruthful in testimony before the Senate Appropriations Committee about casino owner Louis DeNaples.

"At a minimum someone has not been honest with this committee," said Corman, a Centre County Republican. "Someone made a decision to turn a blind eye on this DeNaples matter." If necessary, the attorney general should step in to sort out the mess, he said. Corman wants to know whether any "outside influence" played a role.

Here's what's going on. DeNaples stands accused in Dauphin County Court of lying to gambling board investigators about the extent to which he knew two mob figures, one of them dead for 14 years. DeNaples' lawyers say it's all lies and the businessman is the victim of a witch hunt.

It is a huge embarrassment for the gambling board.

Members of the Gaming Control Board testified before the Senate panel recently. Kenneth McCabe, a former Pittsburgh FBI agent, said he was "misled" by the state police. Tad Decker, the former chairman, who did not testify, told reporters its investigators never referred a perjury allegation to the state police. The board wasn't aware of the allegation, Decker said.

In essence the board contends the state police withheld critical information.

State Police Commissioner Jeffrey Miller took center stage last week before the Senate Appropriations Committee. Miller said the gaming board had referred the perjury matter to state police and he said some of the commissioners, including Decker, probably knew DeNaples was under investigation when the board issued him the license.

McCabe was believable. Decker seems to sincerely believe what he is saying. "I may get PO'd but I don't lie," Decker later told me.

Miller seemed 100 percent certain of what he was saying. He's got the demeanor of an Eagle Scout. He said he had no motive to lie about it.

Are people beneath them not squaring with them? Or is this all a game of semantics? Or is someone blowing smoke?

Curiously, Miller and other state police officers were sworn in to testify. I mistakenly wrote last week that McCabe was sworn because all witnesses before the Senate panel routinely take an oath. But McCabe and the other gaming board members were not sworn in. It was an oversight and a mistake, said David Atkinson, a committee spokesman.

It is entirely possible that while Decker is maintaining there was "no referral," gaming agents may have told the state police they suspected DeNaples may not have been truthful. The state police doesn't distinguish between "formal and informal referrals," state police spokeswoman Linette Quinn said.

Quinn said the "fact remains that (gaming agents) had concerns over the truthfulness of DeNaples' depositions. If in fact DeNaples was not truthful in his testimony, he committed the crime of perjury. The state police understood that and (gaming agents) understood that."

Sen. John Rafferty, whose Law & Justice Committee oversees the state police, is planning a hearing to zero in on this matter. He wants to do it with Sen. Jane Earll, R-Erie, who chairs a gambling oversight panel. Rafferty, R-Chester County, is viewed as pro state police. Earll, who has a casino in her district, is viewed as pro-gaming.

The senators from opposite ends of the state and different perspectives might get to the bottom of it.

That's what Corman is hoping anyway.

Brad Bumsted is a state Capitol reporter for the Tribune-Review. He can be contacted at bbumsted@tribweb.com or 717-787-1405.