YOUNGSTOWN Judge sets date for Goldberg trial

The trial date will be a moot point if the judge dismisses the charges.
By BOB JACKSON
VINDICATOR COURTHOUSE REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- A new date has been set for disbarred attorney Richard Goldberg's trial on criminal charges in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court, but his lawyers might want it changed.
They say Goldberg needs time to complete a substance abuse treatment program. Prosecutors don't agree.
Visiting Judge Stephen Yarbrough scheduled the trial for Sept. 16. He noted that the date is tentative and depends on information he's to receive about Goldberg's participation in a substance abuse program at a federal prison in Morgantown, W.Va.
Goldberg, 56, a former medical malpractice attorney, is in the federal lockup for defrauding clients out of money they should have received from lawsuit settlements. The Ohio Supreme Court recently disbarred him for the same thing.
Goldberg also faces criminal charges in common pleas court. A grand jury indicted him a year ago on multiple counts of forgery, theft and engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity.
Postponed: His trial on the state charges was to have begun last month but was postponed when Columbus attorneys Karl Schneider and Brian Dickerson filed a motion asking that the charges be dismissed.
They say that county Prosecutor Paul Gains had promised he wouldn't seek a state indictment in addition to the federal charges and that the statute of limitations had expired on some counts.
Gains said he did make that promise but only if Goldberg cooperated fully in the federal investigation. He said Goldberg breached the agreement by withholding information from federal authorities about victims of his crimes.
Judge Yarbrough held a hearing on the matter in February and has given attorneys from both sides until March 22 to file written briefs, and another week to file their responses.
Scenarios: If he rules in Goldberg's favor, the trial date becomes moot. But if he doesn't dismiss the charges, Goldberg's attorneys have asked that the trial date be pushed back at least a month so he can complete the substance abuse treatment program at Morgantown.
Dickerson said the program consists of nine months of in-house treatment and six months in a halfway house. Goldberg is scheduled to complete the program Oct. 25, which would be a problem if he goes to trial in September.
"If he leaves the program to come to trial, he'll be thrown out of it," said Timothy Franken, assistant prosecutor.
Franken said he will oppose changing the September trial date if Goldberg's lawyers ask for it.
"We don't believe he even has a drug problem in the first place," he said.
bjackson@vindy.com