MAHONING VALLEY Colucci's clients compile statements for sentencing

The former clients wrote victim impact statements for a federal judge.
AUSTINTOWN -- Lory Patrick's voice cracked as she cupped her hand to keep the candle flame alive and described what happened to those who put their faith in a prison-bound ex-lawyer.
Roughly 15 former clients of Mark S. Colucci gathered on the outdoor patio behind Bottom Line Pub on Mahoning Avenue for a candlelight vigil Thanksgiving Eve. They represent just a small number of the men and women who say they paid Colucci, 46, of Austintown, for legal services he never performed.
Patrick, a legal secretary in Youngstown, said she formed a group of around 100 Colucci clients. The Niles woman said some of victims lost their homes and custody of their children because of him.
Her situation
Patrick said she hired Colucci after her ex-husband filed a domestic violence charge against her.
"He said he'd do this, he said he'd do that. He did nothing. I walked into Girard court and got one year in jail," she said. "I'm over $100,000 in legal fees now for my appeal -- can the average person afford that? Why aren't the judges reopening all these cases?"
She mocked the billboards that once featured a photo of Colucci with the slogan "Justice for all." She said Colucci's motive was pure greed.
Colucci's Canfield lawyer, David J. Betras, has said that his client suffers from bipolar mood disorder and has alcohol and polysubstance (prescription drug) dependence problems. Betras said Colucci had been sober for 15 years then fell off the wagon.
Patrick, in referring to Betras' comments, said Wednesday night that "a million" people have bipolar and alcohol problems, but that doesn't give them the right to ruin lives.
Statements for the judge
After the candlelight vigil, the former clients wrote victim-impact statements to send to U.S. District Judge Kathleen M. O'Malley, who will sentence Colucci on Dec. 16. The sentencing range is 12 to 18 months. He resigned his law license in September and pleaded guilty in October to tax evasion.
Norma Jibotian of Warren told The Vindicator that she paid Colucci $40,000 to win back guardianship of her husband, who has Alzheimer's, and an additional $5,000 for a private investigator. Jibotian said she had signed over guardianship of her husband to Senior Rights in Warren then wanted to reverse it.
"He said he could do it -- he promised -- and he told me $40,000 was a bargain, that it should have been $80,000," Jibotian said. "He did nothing."
Jibotian, 72, said her husband, Auriel, now in a nursing home, once boxed under the name Lalu Sabotin. She said he was famous locally.
She called Colucci the "best con artist of the century."
Jibotian said she was able to get Colucci to pay back almost $10,500 and believes he did so because she called almost daily and shamed him. "I said to him, 'I thought of you as a son.'"
Also at the candlelight vigil was Joyce Woods of Warren, secretary for the Citizens for Family Justice. Woods said her group got involved primarily because of Jibotian.
"It's amazing how judges and lawyers can be such hypocrites -- they saw that Mark Colucci wasn't filing motions -- and they did nothing," Woods said.
More accounts
Helen Efstathiadis of Warren said she paid Colucci $3,600 to fight a case filed by family members of an elderly man who left her, not them, "a lot" of money. Efstathiadis, who works for the Trumbull County Maintenance Department, said the elderly man was a friend for 20 years who frequently visited the shop she and her husband have in Warren, Chris & amp; Sons Automotive. She said they loved him and thought of him as family.
Darryl and Tossiah Haynes of Youngstown said they paid Colucci almost $2,000 to help them win back their four children who were taken by the Mahoning County Children Services Board.
"He didn't help us, we're still trying to get our children back," Tossiah Haynes said. "We have another lawyer now."
Richard Boyle, 60, said he was Colucci's in-house investigator and sponsor in Alcoholics Anonymous.
Boyle, who left the Mahoning County Sheriff's Department on disability, said he didn't get paid on a regular basis by Colucci and things got so bad that his house went into foreclosure and he had to refinance it. The Youngstown man, who uses a cane, said he also had to give up Lucky, his service dog, because he couldn't afford to feed her.
Boyle said he owns the International Disability Coalition and lent Colucci $660 from it because Colucci, an officer of the coalition, was way behind in paying court reporters for transcripts. Boyle said the money was never returned, and he considers it theft by deception.
Suspension
Colucci's law license was suspended in July by the Ohio Supreme Court after the Mahoning County Bar Association filed a 91-page complaint against him. The bar association initiated the investigation after reading in The Vindicator that Colucci skipped a hearing in federal court in Youngstown so he could talk to reporters in Cleveland when ex-U.S. Rep. James A. Traficant Jr. was sentenced to eight years in prison July 30, 2002.
The bar complaint accused Colucci of engaging in practices that prejudice the administration of justice, neglecting legal matters entrusted to him, charting or collecting excessive fees, failing to inform a client that he does not have professional liability insurance, and failing to pay clients money they had coming from lawsuits. In addition, Colucci was accused of settling one case without first consulting with his client, accepting fees without doing work for his clients, and charging other clients for a private investigator he never hired.
Colucci's 19-count information in federal court, meanwhile, says he failed to pay the IRS nearly $30,000 in income and Federal Insurance Contributions Act taxes withheld from his employees from 1996 to 2001 and failed to pay $291,149 in personal income tax from 1997 to 2001.
Betras has said that Colucci's former clients must apply to the Client Security Fund in Columbus to see if they qualify for reimbursement. Those interviewed at the candlelight vigil said they applied but haven't heard anything back.
"Those weren't criminal matters, I don't believe they'll go anywhere," Betras has said of the clients' complaints. "I don't think he had the intent to commit crimes. He didn't steal money."
Clients who hire lawyers sometimes think they're buying a product but what they're buying is time and advice, Betras has said. Lawyers can't guarantee outcomes, he said.