Prosecutors: Keep Philomena in jail

The lawyers said Philomena has only himself to blame for his situation.
& lt;a href=mailto:bjackson@vindy.com & gt;By BOB JACKSON & lt;/a & gt;
VINDICATOR COURTHOUSE REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Prosecutors say James A. Philomena's request for early release from prison should be thrown out and the former Mahoning County prosecutor should remain behind bars.
Philomena, 56, is in a state penitentiary for fixing cases while he was in office from 1990 to 1996. He pleaded guilty in October 2001 to three counts of bribery and one count of perjury.
The first four years of Philomena's six-year sentence on state charges was served concurrently with a four-year stretch in federal prison for similar charges. After his release in July 2003, he was taken to a state prison to serve the remaining two years.
Wants judicial release
Philomena filed a request last month in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court asking to be let out of prison on judicial release, formerly known as shock probation. His lawyer, Charles Dunlap, said Philomena has been punished enough and deserves to be set free.
Dunlap argued that Philomena's six-year sentence is longer than the sentence imposed on any other official who was caught in a probe of corruption in Mahoning County government.
He also said it's substantially longer than the 30-month sentence given to a former assistant Cuyahoga County prosecutor who pleaded guilty last year to 12 counts of similar felonies.
But special prosecutors A. Steven Dever and John R. Mitchell said in their written response, filed this week, that Philomena has no one but himself to blame for the harsh sentence imposed on him by visiting Judge Richard Markus.
They said Philomena lied to a county grand jury, which was the reason for his perjury charge.
"He cannot complain of the situation he is in as his own lies caused him to be further prosecuted," the prosecutors wrote in their court pleading.
They also said the Cuyahoga County case involved an assistant prosecutor, while Philomena was the elected county prosecutor.
"As such, his duties and responsibilities were higher than that of an assistant," they wrote.
They said Judge Markus should overrule Philomena's motion for early release and make him serve out the remainder of his sentence, which expires in 2005.
& lt;a href=mailto:bjackson@vindy.com & gt;bjackson@vindy.com & lt;/a & gt;