WARREN Father, son must report to jail Tuesday

The FBI is still asking contractors to come forward with information.
By PEGGY SINKOVICH
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
WARREN -- Until now, only World War II kept Dante Massacci Sr. from his work.
For the past 60 years, Massacci Sr. could be seen with his cigar dangling from the left side of his mouth, as he demolished numerous buildings and laid asphalt.
Neither cancer treatment nor the birth of his three children and seven grandchildren could keep Massacci from riding the roller at the work site, said his son, Dante Massacci Jr., 33, of Howland.
"He's a fixture, that's for sure," the younger Massacci said last week as their company, DPM, paved a parking lot at a business on East Market Street. DPM, a paving and contracting company, was formed a few years ago to replace the Massaccis' previous company, South Main Sand and Gravel.
That's all going to change Tuesday, when the father and son report to federal prison in Morgantown, W.Va.
"It's hard to believe I'll be spending my 80th birthday behind bars," Massacci Sr. said, as he leaned against the construction trailer.
The Massaccis pleaded guilty in December to one count each of violating the Hobbs Act, a federal law targeting public officials who extort bribes.
The two were accused of paying off a Warren city official -- who has not yet been identified -- to get a half-dozen city construction contracts over a three-year period. They were sentenced April 1 to a year and one day in prison, beginning Tuesday.
"We are stupid," Massacci Sr. said. "We went to the FBI, we told them that we had to pay to do work, and we are now going to prison -- and the guy we paid is still walking the streets."
The investigation is continuing, said John Kane, agent in charge of the Youngstown FBI office.
"It's still an ongoing investigation, and it does take time," Kane said. "We are talking to a lot of people and it is a very large project. We have the full support of the U.S. attorney's office, and we will continue."
Kane also said any contractors who had to pay bribes to a city official should contact the FBI.
"It's not a good idea to wait for us to find you," Kane said.
What they're saying
Massacci Sr. and his son said they paid the city official so they could do work.
"We couldn't do any work in the city without paying him," Massacci Jr. said. "Even if we were doing a private job, he would want money. We couldn't get a permit to do work without him knowing about it. He would show up at the job site and say he wanted his money."
Moving to a different area was out of the question. Their family is rooted here, and "we couldn't afford it," Massacci Jr. said.
"Get this. We had to pay to do work in the city. We had to bid the lowest price, do the job, which we did -- we did good work, that has not been disputed -- and we still went bankrupt," he continued. "We didn't make any money. We lost out on the deal, and we are now going to prison."
The company at the time was South Main Sand and Gravel.
A federal bill of information states the Massaccis paid the unidentified city official $70,000 to obtain more than $770,000 in contracts.
In August and September of 1994, the Massaccis talked with the city official, who told them that for $15,000 he could help the company get a demolition contract with Delphi Packard Electric Systems, according to documents on file in Cleveland U.S. District Court.
The company was awarded the $447,000 contract Sept. 14, 1994, and paid the public official $15,000, the document states.
After work on the Delphi contract was completed, the younger Massacci told the public official he could no longer pay him in cash for future contracts, according to the court documents.
'Another idea'
"I was trying to get out of it, but the official came up with another idea," Massacci Jr. said.
In December 1995, the official had T & amp;J Construction of Warren, owned by James Nicolaus, provide South Main with a fraudulent invoice of $9,985, according to the same federal court documents. South Main then paid that amount to T & amp;J knowing the money would be used to pay the official, the documents state.
This continued for several other projects, officials said.
Nicolaus has testified before a federal grand jury but has not been charged.