Former Dauphin County GOP chairman and political player William Trickett Smith Sr., who has a string of criminal convictions, is facing new federal charges that he tried to help his son escape from prison.

His son, William Trickett Smith II, is behind bars in South America after pleading guilty to murdering his Peruvian wife.

U.S. Attorney Peter J. Smith said Wednesday that the elder Smith, 76, of Swatara Township, twice tried to arrange escapes for his son, lied to federal investigators about the plots, and also tried to get another person to lie to federal agents.

The younger Smith was arrested in Pennsylvania for his wife's slaying in 2008. Peruvian authorities sought his extradition for the crime, which occurred in that country. Federal investigators claim that in 2009 and 2010 his father devised plans for his son to escape before being extradited.

They claim that the first plan involved filing a false private criminal complaint that would result in his son being transported from the state prison at Smithfield to a district judge's office for a hearing. The elder Smith then planned to pay a constable to allow his son to escape during the transport.

William Trickett Smith II and his wife, Jana Claudia Gomez Menendez.

According to his indictment filed in U.S. Middle District Court, the elder Smith planned to pay a district judge $1 million to participate in the scheme, while the constable, who was never chosen for the plot, would get a $25,000 bribe.

That plan failed when the district attorney's office wouldn't approve the private criminal complaint against the younger Smith, which was filed under the name Abraham Martinez in mid-2009, authorities contend.

Heidi Havens, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's Office, said Thursday that "there is no allegation of wrongdoing by the district judge or by any member of the district judge's staff," in the office where the elder Smith filed his bogus complaint.

The indictment states that Dauphin County detectives obtained a hand-written note detailing the plan and that the elder Smith discussed the plot during several phone calls that were recorded by investigators.

Federal agents claim the elder Smith then came up with another plan to pay off a prison guard after his son was transferred to the Perry County Prison in the fall of 2009. The elder Smith had several phone conversations about that plan with a Dauphin County employee and a Perry County Prison guard who were cooperating with federal investigators, the indictment states.

That second escape scheme faded away when his son was sent to another prison in March 2010.

Smith's son was extradited to Peru later in 2010. In May 2011, he pleaded guilty in a Peruvian court to killing his wife and was sentenced to 35 years in prison

Peter Smith said the charges against the elder Smith result from a probe by the FBI, the U.S. Marshals Service, the Dauphin County District Attorney's Office, the state Corrections Department and the Perry County Prison.

The charges that the elder Smith faces carry a penalty of up to 20 years in prison, Peter Smith said.

The new charges are just the latest in a string of criminal cases against William Trickett Smith Sr., who was once a power broker in state Republican politics.

Last November, he was sentenced to 2 1/2 to 5 years in state prison after pleading guilty to a May 2007 arson of the guest house of his home. Dauphin County prosecutors said Smith, a lawyer, set the fire to hide evidence that he was stealing money from three elderly clients. He is serving that sentence in the state prison at Waymart.

In November 2010, a Dauphin County judge had sentenced Smith to 1 to 5 years in prison, plus 5 years of probation, for stealing $73,000 from the estates of those clients.

Smith also served 3 1/2 years in federal prison in the 1980s after being convicted of racketeering, mail fraud and conspiracy charges in a $5 million state bid-rigging scandal that also involved former state Treasurer R. Budd Dwyer. Dwyer fatally shot himself during a televised news conference the day before Smith was sentenced.

To see the indictment, click this link: smithind.pdf

This story has been updated with additional information from the U.S. Attorney's Office.