PURCHASING PROBE Grand jurors hear testimony

The county administrator testified for about an hour.
By PEGGY SINKOVICH
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
WARREN -- The Trumbull County administrator and maintenance department workers testified in front of a grand jury hearing information on the county purchasing probe.
Tony Carson, administrator; Patty Patros, the secretary to former maintenance director Tony Delmont; other maintenance workers; two agents with the state Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation; and an agent with the state auditor's office were all seen by reporters going into the grand jury office.
Grand jury proceedings are secret so it is not known what took place.
Victor Vigluicci, Portage County prosecutor, who is serving as special prosecutor in the probe, declined to comment. He also would not say if the grand jury may soon report or meet again.
Carson spent about an hour inside the grand jury room and declined to comment.
Patros spent more than an hour behind the closed door. When she exited the office, she hugged a friend and then left without speaking to reporters.
Absent
Karen Delmont, the estranged wife of Tony Delmont, had been subpoenaed to testify but did not appear.
"I told the prosecutor that I would advise her not to testify at this time, since she has a pending indictment, so she did not have to go," said Karen Delmont's attorney, Phil Vigorito.
Karen Delmont, who has pleaded innocent to a felony charge of money laundering, could not be reached to comment. Her case is pending in the courtroom of Judge W. Wyatt McKay of Trumbull County Common Pleas Court.
For the past two years, Trumbull prosecutors and officials with the state attorney general's office and the state auditor's office have been poring over thousands of documents, including purchase orders and bank statements, to get to the bottom of the scandal.
The special county grand jury has indicted eight people. Out of the eight, six either worked for or owned janitorial companies that sold goods to the county.
In August, Prosecutor Dennis Watkins appointed Vigluicci to take over the probe.
The grand jury met briefly last week, and Tony Delmont testified. Because grand jury proceedings are secret, his testimony has not been made public.
Delmont's attorney, Robert Shaker, has declined to comment.
For at least three years, Delmont was buying maintenance and cleaning supplies in huge quantities and at exorbitant prices. He pleaded guilty in May to bribery, money laundering and theft-in-office charges.
sinkovich@vindy.com