MAHONING COUNTY Former prosecutor asks for probation

James A. Philomena's federal prison term expires June 30.
By BOB JACKSON
VINDICATOR COURTHOUSE REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Mahoning County's imprisoned former prosecutor has filed a motion for release from state prison, even though he has yet to serve a day there.
James A. Philomena, 55, is serving a four-year sentence at a federal prison in Milan, Mich., after pleading guilty in November 1999 to racketeering and bribery charges. He admitted fixing cases during his tenure as prosecutor.
In October 2001, Philomena pleaded guilty to state charges of bribery and perjury, and was sentenced to six years in a state prison. Visiting Judge Richard Markus ordered the term to run concurrent with Philomena's federal time, which is to expire June 30.
That means when Philomena is released from federal prison, he will be taken directly to a state prison to serve two more years.
His argument
But in a motion filed Thursday in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court, Philomena argues that even though he hasn't done time in a state penitentiary, he has already served enough of his state sentence to qualify for judicial release, formerly known as shock probation.
Because he's serving the state sentence parallel with the federal sentence, the time he has spent in federal prison should apply and he should not be made to go to a state prison, court documents say.
Philomena said his conviction on state charges has already brought him punishment. He was originally held in a minimum-security federal prison but was moved to a higher-security designation after his state plea. That meant he was moved to a prison where violent criminals are kept instead of one for low-level, first-time offenders.
It also prevented him from completing a residential drug treatment program at the prison in Alabama where he was originally being held. Had he been able to complete the program, he would have been eligible for release from prison into a halfway house in December 2001.
A prison target
Philomena said his identity as a former prosecutor became "readily known" to other inmates in the federal prison, causing him to be threatened, accosted, assaulted and injured.
"It shouldn't leave much to the imagination as to what fate awaits [me]" in a state prison, he wrote.
Philomena's motion says that within five months of his October 2001 plea and sentencing, he suffered a heart attack and underwent prostate surgery. He suffers from hypertension, takes six different medications per day, and his weight has dropped from 205 to 160 pounds.
Philomena said he has been punished enough, and asked that Judge Markus approve his request for shock probation.
"To do otherwise would only plunge [me] back into the tunnel, into darkness, into despair," the court document says.
bjackson@vindy.com