COURT Janitor pleads guilty in supply scheme
Floor scrubbing equipment purchased for $7,000 could not be found.
WARREN -- Daniel A. Donofrio III, a contractor who scrubbed the floors of county buildings, pleaded guilty Monday to two theft charges related to a Trumbull County janitorial supply purchasing scam.
Donofrio, 40, of Brookfield, appeared before Judge Peter Kontos of Trumbull County Common Pleas Court for a plea agreement to the first-degree misdemeanors.
He has to make $12,000 in restitution to Trumbull County at the time of his sentencing. The judge ordered a pre-sentencing investigation. Donofrio also could face six months in jail and up to a $1,000 fine on the two counts.
Donofrio was indicted in August 2004 by a grand jury that was probing the county's maintenance department. Donofrio had originally been indicted on two counts of grand theft and one count of complicity to commit grand theft, and had pleaded innocent.
Failure to cooperate further with "investigators of Trumbull County's janitorial purchasing practices" could result in prosecution of the original charges and 12 months in jail, the plea agreement states. He will also serve five years of probation.
The agreement was signed by Christopher D. Becker, assistant prosecutor; Donofrio; and his lawyer Damian Billak.
Supply snafu
In December, prosecutors wrote a letter to Trumbull County commissioners asking for help in locating a floor scrubber that was purchased from Donofrio for $7,000 but could not be found.
That letter from James Misocky, an assistant Trumbull prosecutor, stated that the county maintenance department bought the scrubber in 1999 from Donofrio. Donofrio, whose company operated out of a post office box and has no business phone, was not in the business of selling equipment, the letter said.
The floor scrubber was used by Donofrio, whose company had billed the county for $113,000 since 2000, to clean floors in the family court detention center. The scrubber's whereabouts was not disclosed in the plea agreement.
Donofrio had been subpoenaed to testify in front of the grand jury in March 2004. Because grand jury proceedings are secret, it is not known what Donofrio was asked or if he answered any questions.
Prosecutors say Tony Delmont, as the county's maintenance director, spent more on cleaning supplies than necessary in exchange for bribes from vendors. He has pleaded guilty to bribery, money laundering and theft-in-office charges.
In a hearing last year before Delmont's termination by the county, prosecutors said he had stolen about $400,000 from the county since 1998.