TRUMBULL COUNTY Supply salesman pleads innocent

Terry Maiorana is facing the same charges as his wife.
By STEPHEN SIFF
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
WARREN -- A salesman for a company that sold janitorial supplies to Trumbull County pleaded innocent today to charges of bribery and money laundering and two counts of theft.
Terry Maiorana, formerly of Canfield, surrendered to authorities at 7 a.m. today, before his 9 a.m. appearance before Judge Peter Kontos of Trumbull County Common Pleas Court.
Maiorana moved to Arizona shortly after investigators began looking into his company, Lid Chem, which had an unlisted phone number and received mail at a post office box in Girard. His bond was set at $75,000.
Maiorana's wife, Linda, president of Lid Chem, and the company itself were each indicted separately on identical charges. Mrs. Maiorana pleaded innocent Wednesday and was released on $50,000 bail.
Try to combine cases
Atty. J. Gerald Ingram, who represents both Maioranas, said he intends to file a motion to combine the cases.
Lid Chem and a related company, Tri-County Supplies, attracted prosecutors' attention late last year after The Vindicator found that the companies had unlisted phone numbers and did business out of a Girard post office box. The companies collected $800,000 from Trumbull County for janitorial supplies since 1993 without holding a formal contract or submitting a bid.
According to county invoices, taxpayers spent more than $70,000 with Lid Chem for items such as toilet bowl cleaner and laundry soap in 2002 alone before county Prosecutor Dennis Watkins closed the door on the company doing business with the county at the end of August.
State law generally requires contracts worth more than $15,000 to be put out for competitive bid.
The secret indictment issued two weeks ago accuses the Maioranas of bribing Tony Delmont, former maintenance department director, in 1998 with an $800 check; money laundering, for having Delmont's associate Marietta Brzeczek cash the check on his behalf; and theft, for referring service calls to repair county equipment to other companies and padding the invoices.
Prosecutors say they found overcharges totaling $5,300 since 1999.
Delmont approved purchases from the company. Last year, Delmont said he did not know where the company was located or if it has a warehouse.
Delmont was fired by commissioners after he pleaded innocent to charges of bribery, theft in office and money laundering. He remains free on bond.
Listed in papers
In incorporation papers, Lid Chem lists Linda Maiorana of 918 Dravis Ave., Girard, as its representative. On other paperwork, she is referred to as company president.
Tri-County Supply does business from the same single-family ranch home, according to county records.
Neither Lid Chem nor Tri-County Supplies owns real estate under the company names in Trumbull or Mahoning counties. Inventory was kept at the Maioranas' Canfield home, according to Mahoning County personal property tax records.
The company ended 2001 with less than $2,000 worth of equipment and inventory, those tax records show.
The maintenance department spent $545,396 on supplies in 2001.
In the first 10 months of 2003, the county spent about $32,925 to buy all the toilet paper, trash-can liners, glass cleaner and other janitorial supplies it needed, according to county records.