CLEVELAND Sfara Bruno seeks legal-fee reimbursement

By PATRICIA MEADE
VINDICATOR CRIME REPORTER
CLEVELAND -- Now that her federal bribery indictment has been dismissed, Boardman attorney Lynn Sfara Bruno wants back $73,000 she spent for legal fees and other expenses gearing up for trial.
In a motion filed in U.S. District Court, Sfara Bruno's Cleveland lawyer, John F. McCaffrey, bases his client's right to remuneration on the Hyde Amendment. The federal legislation was enacted to curb prosecutorial abuse and allow a winning defendant to collect reasonable attorney fees and litigation costs.
The amendment also was enacted to deter prosecutors from bringing an unfounded indictment, McCaffrey said in his motion.
McCaffrey wants U.S. District Judge Kathleen M. O'Malley to conclude that actions by the FBI and federal prosecutors were "vexatious, frivolous and/or in bad faith."
McCaffrey, in asking for $73,161, notes that the amount does not include any pre-indictment expenses that his client could properly request.
If Judge O'Malley can't make a decision based on the current record, McCaffrey wants all the evidence collected and a hearing scheduled, during which witnesses, including ex-Mahoning County Prosecutor James A. Philomena, FBI agents and federal prosecutors, would be called to testify.
The government will respond to McCaffrey's motion before Judge O'Malley makes a decision.
Indictment: Sfara Bruno's two-count indictment, handed up Sept. 12, charged extortion and conspiracy to commit extortion. The government, represented by Thomas J. Gruscinski, said Sfara Bruno gave Philomena cash, gifts and campaign contributions between January 1991 and December 1996.
McCaffrey's motion lists the gifts as a baby's ring, a men's dress shirt, Easter candy and table decorations for a charitable event.
In return, Philomena directed James A. Vitullo, then an assistant prosecutor in Austintown, to reduce or dismiss DUI charges for Sfara Bruno's clients, the government said. The indictment lists five cases, four of which were in Mahoning County Court in Austintown when Vitullo served there.
Vitullo was found innocent at trial in October.
Philomena, who reached a plea agreement with the government in September 1999 and is serving a prison sentence, testified at Vitullo's trial and was set to be the star witness for Sfara Bruno's trial, which had been set for Dec. 4.
The government dismissed Sfara Bruno's indictment on Nov. 9.
Resigned post: Sfara Bruno resigned as a Youngstown Municipal Court magistrate last December after the FBI told the presiding judge that she was the target of a criminal investigation. She told The Vindicator, though, that she left the $50,000-a-year part-time job because of her increased private law practice.
The Mahoning County Bar Association president also asked that she resign from the bar's grievance committee because of the FBI probe.
The FBI, McCaffrey said, interviewed Sfara Bruno's colleagues and clients and demonstrated a lack of objectivity in doing so. Agents intended to destroy her reputation, he said.
This past summer, the FBI undertook a mass mailing to Sfara Bruno's current and former clients asking that they confirm what they had paid for legal representation, McCaffrey said. Afterward, numerous clients had her withdraw as their lawyer, he said.
McCaffrey says in a footnote that Sfara Bruno believes many of the names and addresses were stolen from her by a disgruntled former employee who had been cooperating with the FBI.
meade@vindy.com