MAHONING COUNTY Deputy sheriff is called to grand jury in probe

The sheriff says deputies are supposed to tell him if they've been subpoenaed.
By PATRICIA MEADE
VINDICATOR CRIME REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- A federal investigation of the Mahoning County Sheriff's Department is stretching into its sixth month.
Sheriff Randall A. Wellington said Friday that one more deputy was subpoenaed to testify this week at the federal grand jury in Cleveland. Documents were turned over to the FBI last summer, and the grand jury has been hearing evidence since at least late last fall.
The sheriff said he is aware of only a handful of deputies who have been subpoenaed to testify so far. All of them worked in the jail, he said.
Wellington said deputies are supposed to notify him if they get a subpoena.
Deputies testified at the grand jury in November, the same month that two federal prosecutors and agents with the FBI and the state Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation toured the jail.
Last August, the sheriff's department turned over to the FBI original personnel files, disciplinary records and training documents for 13 employees.
Investigation into allegations
The department also turned over an investigative file dealing with Deputy Mark Dixon and former inmate Tawhon Easterly, 24, of Youngstown. Cell pod logs from Nov. 12, 2001, to April 16, 2002 were taken by the FBI. The cell pod time span covers both Easterly and Dixon.
Dixon, 31, 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.
Easterly has been in Trumbull Correctional Institution since July 2002, serving six years for involuntary manslaughter. In June 2002, he was convicted of assaulting a deputy six months earlier in the jail.
Austintown Police Chief Gordon Ellis and three of his officers were subpoenaed to the grand jury and testified last October.
Ellis has confirmed that Deputy Ronald Kaschak, who applied for a job with Austintown police, made "allegations of questionable use of force" in the jail during pre-employment tests. The chief advised Wellington by letter of the allegations.
Wellington has said Kaschak's allegation that Easterly had been roughed up in the jail was unfounded and that no disciplinary action was taken.
meade@vindy.com