SFARA BRUNO CASE Legal fees settlement is reached

The settlement isn't an admission of wrongdoing by the government.
By PATRICIA MEADE
VINDICATOR CRIME REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- The federal government has agreed to pay Boardman attorney Lynn Sfara Bruno's Cleveland lawyers $15,000 for legal work they did after her extortion case was dismissed.
In January, U.S. District Judge Kathleen M. O'Malley ordered that the government pay the cost of 10 court filings and one court hearing that took place in 2002 and 2003 that involved Cleveland attorneys Patrick M. McLaughlin and John F. McCaffrey. In April, the notice of legal fees incurred by them was filed under seal so the amount requested is unknown.
The settlement agreement, filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Cleveland and obtained Wednesday by The Vindicator, states that it should not be construed as an admission on the government's part of guilt, wrongdoing or violation of Sfara Bruno's rights in any respect.
The settlement was signed by Sfara Bruno, McCaffrey and J. Matthew Cain, an assistant U.S. attorney. Sfara Bruno and McCaffrey could not be reached.
Cain had no comment Wednesday about the settlement and referred questions to U.S. Attorney Gregory A. White, who could not be reached.
About the indictment
Sfara Bruno's two-count indictment, handed up Sept. 12, 2001, charged extortion and conspiracy to commit extortion.
She had been accused of giving former Mahoning County Prosecutor James A. Philomena cash, gifts and campaign contributions between January 1991 and December 1996 as payment for his directing an assistant prosecutor to reduce or dismiss DUI charges for her clients. Philomena, now in prison, provided the government with information about Sfara Bruno.
The government has said that Philomena's recollection of a September 1996 DUI wavered after he spoke to Sfara Bruno's lawyers, although he still maintained that she had paid him several times to fix other DUI cases.
With the 1996 case in doubt, the government had none in her indictment that met the five-year statute of limitations and asked that Judge O'Malley dismiss the indictment in November 2001.
Sfara Bruno then attempted to recoup $73,161 she said she spent in legal fees and other expenses gearing up for trial.
Sfara Bruno's attempt for the money failed, with Judge O'Malley saying that, at the time of the indictment, the government had substantial evidence suggesting that she had engaged in case fixing.
When fees were incurred
The fees Sfara Bruno can collect now were incurred after The Vindicator reported in January 2002 the contents of a 77-page brief the government filed that challenged her attempt to collect the $73,161.
Among other things in the brief, Thomas J. Gruscinski, an assistant U.S. attorney, said Sfara Bruno "utterly ignores the fact that she is still the subject of a valid, ongoing criminal tax investigation. She has not been vindicated."
In essence, the government explained that while Sfara Bruno may have been off the hook for fixing DUIs, she failed to tell the IRS how much money clients really paid her for the cases.
Judge O'Malley concluded that the government acted improperly when it faxed its lengthy response brief to the newspaper but mailed it to Sfara Bruno's lawyers. Portions of the brief contained information that should have been under seal, the judge said.
After contents of the government's brief were published, all future filings were placed under seal. The newspaper filed a motion asking that the documents be unsealed. Judge O'Malley then unsealed some filings, but not all.
meade@vindy.com