TRUMBULL COUNTY Workers to appear before grand jury

Deputies delivered 25 supboenas earlier this week.
By PEGGY SINKOVICH
and STEPHEN SIFF
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
WARREN -- The investigation into Trumbull County's purchasing scandal continues next week with more than two dozen maintenance department employees ordered to appear before a grand jury.
The county sheriff's department delivered 25 subpoenas earlier this week, mostly to maintenance department workers.
The subpoenas require them to appear in front of the grand jury Nov. 7.
Since grand jury proceedings are secret, it is not known what the workers will be asked.
Acting maintenance director Al DeVengencie referred questions to the prosecutor's office.
"I talked to the prosecutor this morning, and it is them who sent the subpoenas," he said.
Prosecutor Dennis Watkins declined to comment.
Previous meeting
The grand jury last met in September. Several county employees, as well as Tony Delmont, the former maintenance director, were called to testify.
The day after the grand jury met, Delmont and his wife, Karen, were indicted.
Delmont has pleaded innocent to a seven-count indictment charging him with bribery, money laundering and theft in office.
Karen Delmont also has pleaded innocent to one charge of money laundering. Both are free on bond.
Delmont, a 27-year county employee, was fired by county commissioners Wednesday, a week after he failed to show up at a predisciplinary hearing.
Delmont has been off work since crashing a county truck in February. He will continue to receive workers' compensation checks for 72 percent of his $71,000-a-year salary, regardless of his employment status, officials say.
Workers' compensation would only be discontinued if he is incarcerated or if doctors say his back injury will improve no further, officials say.
Atty. Robert Shaker, one of Delmont's attorneys, declined to say if his client was issued another subpoena for next week.
The county's investigation into the maintenance department began in August 2002, shortly after The Vindicator began publishing a series of stories on the department's excessive purchases and sloppy record-keeping.
The prosecutor, the state Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation and the state auditors' office are conducting the investigation.
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