YOUNGSTOWN Saadey enters plea to weapons charge

The former prosecutor's office investigator is serving a federal prison sentence for racketeering, conspiracy and extortion.
By DAVID SKOLNICK
VINDICATOR POLITICS WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- A 47-year-old Austintown man serving a 55-month prison sentence for fixing criminal cases was back in the Mahoning Valley for his arraignment on a felonious weapons charge.
Russell J. Saadey Jr. entered an innocent plea Tuesday before U.S. Magistrate Judge George J. Limbert to a charge of being a felon in possession of a firearm and ammunition. He was indicted on the charge last week. No further court dates were scheduled.
If convicted, Saadey, who is in a federal penitentiary in Milan, Mich., could be sentenced to 10 years in prison and ordered to pay a $250,000 fine.
Arrested April 21
Saadey was arrested April 21 by Austintown police at his home on a domestic violence charge. Austintown police said Saadey got into a fight with his wife, Joy, 42, in the living room of their Benton Avenue home. During the fight, Saadey went into his bedroom, grabbed a loaded .38-caliber revolver and returned downstairs, police said.
Saadey was restrained by several family members, who were able to get the gun from him, police said. Saadey's son, Russell, 19, told police that he believed his father was going to use the gun on himself.
Felons are prohibited from possessing guns.
Case fixing
The episode occurred two days after Saadey was sentenced in federal court for fixing criminal cases in Mahoning County.
Saadey served as an investigator in the mid-1990s for then-county Prosecutor James A. Philomena, who is serving time in a federal prison for his involvement in the case-fixing scheme.
Saadey was sentenced to 55 months in a federal prison for racketeering, conspiracy, extortion, filing three false income tax returns and submitting five false credit-card applications.
He was free after his April 19 sentencing while the U.S. Bureau of Prisons determined where he would serve. But after the encounter at his home, which resulted in a domestic violence charge filed against him, U.S. District Court Judge Kathleen M. O'Malley revoked his bond and ordered him to immediately start serving his federal sentence. A hearing on that charge is pending.
skolnick@vindy.com