Wednesday, October 2, 2002
Two ex-candidates were fined $250 and placed on nonreporting probation.
By DAVID SKOLNICK
VINDICATOR POLITICS WRITER
AUSTINTOWN -- Concerned that the Mahoning County Court room in Austintown would turn into a "dog and pony show" if preliminary hearings were held, an assistant county prosecutor agreed to make deals with three former Republican candidates accused of election fraud.
Preliminary hearings were set for Tuesday for T. Elliot Hough, a former write-in candidate for a seat on the Ohio 7th District Court of Appeals; Michael Prozy, who ran in May for a Republican precinct committee seat in Canfield; and James A. Roman, who ran in May for a GOP precinct committee seat in Austintown.
Instead, Roman of Youngstown and Prozy of Boardman accepted agreements to plead guilty to a misdemeanor count of election fraud, and in return the judge dismissed a felony count of election falsification against them.
Judge David D'Apolito fined them $250 each, placed them on nonreporting probation for six months, and gave them suspended county jail sentences -- 30 days for Roman and 180 days for Prozy.
John Shultz, Hough's attorney, worked out a deal with Kenneth Cardinal, assistant county prosecutor, to dismiss one felony count of election fraud and one felony count of election falsification against his client. A second felony count of election fraud was bound over to a county grand jury.
Reason for deals
Cardinal worked out the deals because the preliminary hearings would have been "a dog and pony show with a five-hour hearing that had four hours of objections."
Shultz, who also represents Prozy, didn't dispute that characterization saying he was "promising enough [dogs and ponies] to fill Noah's Ark" if the hearings were held.
Shultz said he could have proved that the county board of elections, which asked the sheriff's department to investigate the three cases, targeted only certain people and ignored others who committed the same violations.
"Many interesting issues would have been raised," he said.
Cardinal disputed that, saying that the convictions of Prozy and Roman as well as Hough's bind over to the grand jury show that the elections board means business.
"They want to send a wake-up call," he said. "They're not going to stand for election fraud. How many people have done the same thing and didn't get arrested?"
That comment, Shultz said, only proves his contention about selective prosecution.
Scheduled to testify Tuesday were Michael Sciortino, elections board director; Thomas McCabe, elections board deputy director; Mark Munroe, elections board chairman, and Sheriff Randall Wellington.
Filed charges
The sheriff's department filed charges against the three former candidates in June.
The sheriff's department said Hough, of Canfield, registered to vote in a precinct in which he does not live and also listed false addresses for himself on documents to run for the court seat with the elections board.
The sheriff's department said Roman filed to run for a Republican precinct committee seat in Austintown when he lives in Youngstown, and that Prozy lives in Boardman but filed documents at the elections board to run for a Canfield precinct seat.
Roman and Prozy were running as candidates of the Republicans for Real Reform movement, which failed to unseat Mahoning GOP Chairman Clarence Smith, an elections board member.
skolnick@vindy.com