MAHONING COUNTY Gains reverses opinion of case

The county prosecutor decided after meeting with the FBI that sufficient evidence existed in the Buccilli case.
By PATRICIA MEADE
VINDICATOR CRIME REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- The finger of blame Mahoning County Prosecutor Paul J. Gains pointed at the FBI now has bite marks on it.
Until Monday, when FBI Special Agent Andrew G. Arena visited Gains, the prosecutor had called the bribery case against Lou A. Buccilli weak and blamed the FBI when visiting Judge Robert B. Ford dismissed two of three charges.
Gains' comments about the case appeared Saturday in The Vindicator, which prompted Arena's visit Monday.
"Upon further review of this case with my staff and members of the FBI, I have determined that there is sufficient evidence to prosecute Mr. Buccilli," Gains said in a press release issued Monday. "I respectfully disagree with the ruling of Judge Ford and my office will appeal it."
Agents who investigated Buccilli, an 80-year-old retired bail bondsman from Campbell, had turned their evidence over to Gains, who signed a three-count grand jury indictment last August.
Judge dropped counts: Judge Ford, assigned temporarily to Mahoning County Common Pleas Court, scrapped the two counts Friday, calling them defective. The count alleging Buccilli's bribery of a municipal judge stays, but gone are those of conspiracy and engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity.
The dismissed counts, the judge said, should have given the date, type of crime alleged and so forth.
The now-dismissed charges in Buccilli's indictment state only that in 1995, he conspired with and engaged in corrupt conduct with Andrew Polovischak Jr., a municipal judge at the time, and Jack V. Campbell, then a defense lawyer. The charges don't say who did what.
Gains has described the missing language in the indictment as an oversight.
In court papers, Judge Ford agreed with Buccilli's lawyer, James S. Gentile, that simply saying a "pattern of corrupt activity" "alleges nothing."
Gains' office said Monday that he would make no further comment beyond the press release.
Discussion with FBI: Arena, in charge of the bureau's Boardman office, said he and Gains discussed Buccilli's case and, when they finished, the county prosecutor agreed that sufficient evidence exists.
Immediately after the meeting, Gains issued his press release.
The FBI will do whatever more it can to assist Gains, Arena said.
In the past four years, federal prosecutors have presented FBI evidence to grand juries against nearly 70 local corrupt judges, lawyers, public officials, gamblers, mobsters and others. In those cases, no federal judge ever threw out charges based on defective indictments.
Motion rejected: Judge Ford's ruling also rejected a motion filed in January by Nicholas E. Modarelli, chief assistant county prosecutor, to amend Buccilli's indictment. Modarelli had wanted to include that Campbell gave bribe money to Buccilli, who passed it on to Polovischak.
Gains, in explaining difficulties with the case to The Vindicator on Friday, said Polovischak's federal plea agreement does not require him to testify in other cases, as does Campbell's. The state, therefore, would be left with only Campbell's word against Buccilli's, the county prosecutor said.
State prosecutors have said about cases such as Polovischak's that a federal plea agreement has no bearing on a state prosecution, and he could have been called to the grand jury that indicted Buccilli. The state also could call Polovischak as a hostile witness at Buccilli's trial.
Polovischak admitted that he accepted bribes from Buccilli and Campbell, among others.
The ex-judge received a 30-month prison sentence. Campbell received 16 months of electronically monitored house arrest.