YOUNGSTOWN Parole board grants request by Lordi to be released early

The former Mahoning County commissioner will be released in January.
By BOB JACKSON
VINDICATOR COURTHOUSE REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- The Ohio Parole Board has granted Frank Lordi's request to be released early from prison.
Lordi, 55, of Canfield, is serving 18 months for theft in office, for which he was convicted by a Mahoning County Common Pleas Court jury in 1999.
The parole board ruled Monday that the former county commissioner can be set free, said spokeswoman Joellen Culp. He will be released sometime in January, though a definite date is not set, she said.
A hearing on the request was last week, and the board took it under advisement over the weekend.
"It's great news," said Atty. David Engler, who assists with Lordi's defense. "We're talking about a guy who's been in prison for circulating a petition, and it wasn't even his own."
Engler is also a former county commissioner who served alongside Lordi.
Conviction: The jury found that while Lordi was a commissioner, he had county employees do political work on county time. The value of the time they spent doing that was estimated at $200.
Lordi is being held at a minimum-security boot camp at the Ohio State Penitentiary on Coitsville-Hubbard Road.
To qualify for shock parole, an inmate must have served at least six months of his or her sentence and be a first-time, nonviolent offender, Culp said.
bjackson@vindy.com