Man says FBI failed to protect him

The man who alleges Mark Batcho attacked him says deputies should not have put him in harm's way.
By PATRICIA MEADE
VINDICATOR CRIME REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- A one-time FBI snitch who says a mob hit man assaulted him inside the Mahoning County jail has attracted the interest of U.S. Rep. James A. Traficant Jr.
Michael J. Hogan, 35, of Boardman said he has been in contact with an investigator for Traficant and sent along a seven-page letter that details alleged wrongdoing by the local FBI office.
Traficant, of Poland, D-17th, who has long battled the FBI, has been collecting affidavits from people such as Michael Terlecky of Boardman, a convicted felon, who allege corruption within the FBI. The congressman, himself a target of the FBI, expects to be indicted.
John Culbertson, the man Hogan contacted, is a part-time legislative aide and has been on the payroll about eight months, said Charles Straub, Traficant spokesman. Straub said Culbertson was not available to comment.
Based in Washington, D.C., Culbertson has an investigative background and has been working on Traficant's plan to reform the Justice Department, Straub said.
Hogan said the FBI used him in 1996 to gather information about Mark A. Batcho, the man convicted of attempting to kill Paul J. Gains in a mob hit Dec. 24, 1996, 10 days before he took office as Mahoning County prosecutor.
What's alleged: Hogan said his letter to Culbertson says that the FBI has failed to provide him with adequate protection and that deputies at the jail placed him in harm's way last month when Batcho, whom he's known 10 years, allegedly attacked him.
FBI Special Agent Andrew G. Arena, in charge of the bureau's Boardman office, had no comment about Hogan.
Batcho is serving an 18-year state prison sentence for the Gains shooting and has been at the county jail awaiting trial, charged in connection with the murder of a Boardman man. The 34-year-old Campbell man is now charged in the Feb. 23 assault of Hogan.
Hogan had been in the county jail on a probation violation and asked deputies to not put him near Batcho. In a statement to deputies after the beating, Hogan quoted Batcho as saying, "That's what snitches get."
Moved by deputies: Hogan said he had been in one pod and then had to be moved to a medical pod because of his medication. From there, because the space was needed, he said deputies placed him -- despite his protestations -- in the pod that housed Batcho.
Hogan said that when he went to empty a wastebasket, he was hit in the back of the head, which caused him to hit the wall and fall to the floor, and then he was stabbed in the head with a ballpoint pen, reports show. Deputies said Hogan had bruises and scratches on his head and had been kicked.
Batcho's pretrial in the assault charge was expected today in municipal court.