YOUNGSTOWN COURT Attorney files several objections

The judge won't be back on the bench until March 1.
By PATRICIA MEADE
VINDICATOR CRIME REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Boardman attorney Richard A. Olivito objects to his court-appointed lawyer, objects to having a mental evaluation and objects to the judge who found him in contempt of court.
A 20-page motion, filed in Youngstown Municipal Court, is Olivito's response to a contempt-of-court sentencing hearing held Feb. 13. At that time, Judge Robert P. Milich gave Olivito the option of having a mental evaluation by March 8 or going to jail then for 30 days.
At the hearing, Olivito asked Warren attorney Maridee Costanzo to cease representing him. She then sat with Boardman attorney John B. Juhasz, who attended on behalf of the Mahoning County Bar Association courts committee. Judge Milich later called Costanzo to the bench and reappointed her to represent Olivito.
Says he didn't agree
Olivito said in his motion that Costanzo, not he, had agreed in chambers with Judge Milich that a mental health evaluation should take place. Olivito said the order for a mental evaluation under such circumstances has never been done in the history of the Mahoning County Bar Association.
"I can't say how that can be determined," Juhasz said Friday, in response to Olivito's assertion that this has never occurred here. "As far as I know the bar has no record that could definitively state if lawyers had to have evaluations."
Olivito said in his motion that Judge Milich has acted in a punitive manner and shown indifference to his civil rights. He believes Judge Milich has personalized the issue and he wants the judge to stay the current proceedings and step aside from the case.
Judge Milich will not be back on the bench until March 1.
Statements in his motion
"If this kind of order is allowed to occur, then every lawyer who practices before these local courts [is] in fact placed in serious jeopardy of losing control not only over their own practice but their very own choices as to who will represent them and whether or not they can be placed in a coerced 'mental evaluation' status, in a very public manner, at the threat of a court-ordered 30-day jailing," Olivito said in his motion.
Last October, Judge Milich found Olivito in contempt of court for being absent for his client's Sept. 23 driving-under-suspension trial and not calling.
meade@vindy.com