Federal subpoenas issued

Several deputies and the Austintown police chief received subpoenas.
By PATRICIA MEADE
and BOB JACKSON
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITERS
YOUNGSTOWN -- A federal grand jury in Cleveland is investigating the Mahoning County Sheriff's Department.
Sheriff Randall A. Wellington confirmed Monday that at least four of his employees received subpoenas to appear before the panel, and one more was called to testify this week. He said he has not been interviewed by the FBI, state Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation or federal prosecutors.
"I would never put myself in the position of quizzing them," Wellington said of those employees who have testified at the grand jury. "I know absolutely nothing about the investigation."
FBI Special Agent John Kane, head of the bureau's Boardman office, had no comment.
Wellington said the FBI took certain files and reports about two months ago. He received a signed receipt from FBI Special Agent Peter D. Proch.
The receipt shows the sheriff's department turned over original personnel files, disciplinary records and training documents for Maj. Michael Budd, Sgt. William DeLuca, and deputies Ronald Denson, Mark Dixon, Lawrence Dolak, Angela Eaddy, Raymond Hull, Christina Kachaylo, Ronald Kaschak, Stanley Kosinski, John Rivera, Dave Thoreson and Jeff Tinkey.
An investigative file of Dixon's criminal case, involving a charge of sexual battery, and an investigative file that involves former inmate Tawhon Easterly, 24, of Youngstown also were taken, as were cell pod logs from Nov. 12, 2001, to April 16, 2002.
Easterly case
Easterly has been incarcerated at Trumbull Correctional Institution since July 2002, serving six years for involuntary manslaughter. In June 2002, he was convicted of assaulting Kachaylo six months earlier in the jail.
Austintown Police Chief Gordon Ellis said Monday that he and three of his officers were subpoenaed to the grand jury and testified in mid-October. The chief declined to talk about his grand jury testimony but did explain what led up to the subpoenas.
Ellis said Kaschak applied for a job several months ago with Austintown police, and during a series of pre-employment exams, which included voice-stress analysis, made "allegations of questionable use of force" in the jail. The chief said he looked at the test results and then sent Wellington a letter advising him of Kaschak's allegations.
Wellington said Kaschak then became the "main thrust" of an internal affairs investigation that included a sergeant and three to four deputies, whom he refused to identify. He said "bottom line" that Kaschak's allegation to the effect that Easterly had been roughed up in the jail was unfounded and that no disciplinary action was taken.
The sheriff said he has none of the internal affairs documents. The FBI has the originals and no copies were kept.
Tied to election?
Wellington said the documents taken by the FBI indicate to him that the investigation "is broader" than Easterly because of the files that pertain to Dixon.
"Things like this happen prior to an election. We have to deal with it," the sheriff said. "People are motivated to give the FBI information near an election." Wellington was appointed in 1999 and was elected to a full term in 2000, which expires next year. He plans to run for re-election.
Dixon, 30, of Youngstown, was placed on leave in November 2002, after being accused of having sex with an inmate. His trial is pending in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court.
In March, Dixon was indicted by a county grand jury on a charge of sexual battery.
A week before he was indicted, Dixon and his Boardman attorney, John B. Juhasz, were in court, prepared to plead guilty to a prosecutor's bill of information for gross sexual imposition.
That fell through, though, because prosecutors learned at the last minute that they hadn't been given all of the investigative information from the sheriff's department.
Dixon was removed from the sheriff's department payroll in April, and his status with the department is frozen pending outcome of the criminal charge.
meade@vindy.com
bjackson@vindy.com