INMATE BEATING Budd guilty on one count

The jury was hung on three other counts.
CLEVELAND -- Michael Budd walked out of federal court guilty of covering up his link to an inmate beating and knowing he must walk back in to be tried again on three undecided counts.
Budd also left court Tuesday afternoon with the knowledge that his career in law enforcement is finished. The 44-year-old Boardman man, demoted to deputy after indictment five months ago, had held the rank of major at the Mahoning County Sheriff's Department. He has seven days to resign or face disciplinary action.
The end to Budd's civil rights trial -- that had looked as if it might end with a hung jury -- came at 10:38 a.m. Tuesday. He was found guilty of one count, and a mistrial was declared on the remaining three.
Budd, his face beet red, stood at the defense table and tugged on his navy jacket, twitching uncontrollably from Tourette's syndrome the jury had been told about, as he waited for the panel to file in place. In the gallery, eight friends and family members sat, their faces ashen.
U.S. District Judge Dan A. Polster, subbing for U.S. District Judge Lesley Brooks Wells, began by reading a note from the jury foreman: "We do not feel any further time will change our position."
Deliberations
Last week, the jury of seven women and five men, at least half of whom have direct or indirect ties to law enforcement, twice told Judge Wells they were unable to reach a unanimous decision. Each time she urged them to try.
After deliberating an hour Tuesday morning, the jury announced it had a decision.
The jury found Budd guilty of obstructing justice, one prong of the two-prong first count in his four-count indictment. Jurors offered no verdict on the second prong of the count which alleged conspiracy to deprive inmate Tawhon Easterly of his right to be free from excessive force.
The obstruction conviction alone carries a penalty of five years in prison and $250,000 fine followed by three years' supervised release. At a final pretrial last month, Budd rejected a plea deal that called for a prison sentence of 41 to 51 months.
The obstruction conviction means the jury believed that Budd withheld from the FBI a letter that named him as the supervisor who directed deputies to beat Easterly for a second time Dec. 28, 2001, in retaliation for Easterly's punching a female guard.
Easterly was beaten twice the same day by deputies. Budd had no involvement in the first.
Budd substituted a false report of the beating that he forced then-Deputy Richard J. Kaschak to write for the letter Austintown Police Chief Gordon Ellis wrote about the event and gave to Sheriff Randall A. Wellington. The chief's letter, based on Kaschak's confession during a job interview, named Budd as the one who ordered the beating; Kaschak's false report omitted Budd's name.
New jury
Judge Polster, who had been prepared to schedule a sentencing date, was interrupted by a member of Judge Wells' staff, who quietly conveyed a message. Judge Polster then announced that it was Judge Wells' intention to impanel a new jury Thursday morning to retry the remaining three counts that allege Budd:
UOrdered the second beating of Easterly.
UPersonally beat inmate Brandon Moore.
UPersonally beat inmate Stephen Blazo.
The announcement that the three counts would be tried again brought this reaction after court from Budd's Youngstown attorney, Martin E. Yavorcik: "I almost fell out of my chair."
Yavorcik said he was disappointed by the verdict. The lawyer, who interviewed the jurors, said they "were all over the board" in their deliberations, splitting five to seven and then seven to five on the alleged beatings of Moore and Blazo.
Jurors, as they left court, declined to be interviewed by reporters.
Yavorcik said he didn't want to say too much, considering the case will be tried again. He did learn that the jury felt the witnesses whose plea agreements required their testimony lacked credibility, "had something to gain."
He said he will evaluate the case to see what he may do differently the second time around. He said Budd, who testified on his own behalf, did very well and obviously the jurors believed most of what he said under oath.
In reacting to the verdict, federal prosecutors Steven M. Dettelbach and Kristy Parker shared a brief handshake in court. They had no comment afterward.
No Wellington testimony
Budd said after court he was disheartened by the verdict and will continue to fight the remaining charges.
"The thing I got convicted of was over this letter from Austintown Police Department, which wasn't addressed to me, which wasn't even my letter, it was the sheriff's letter," Budd told reporters. "I put it in the file and returned it to [Wellington] and went back on vacation ... I believe that there was exculpatory evidence that we could have entered in ... I'm not sure what happened."
Although Wellington was on the defense witness list, he was not called to testify. After Budd's comment about evidence that would prove his innocence if it had been submitted, The Vindicator asked if the sheriff's testimony might have helped.
"I think if he would have testified he could or couldn't have helped. We never spoke to the sheriff beforehand," Yavorcik said. "He said he would testify on Mike's behalf. He had no problem with that, but I never spoke with him about what his testimony would be. From a lawyer's standpoint, you don't call a witness to the stand when you don't know what they're going to testify to -- good or bad."
Obstruction time line
Dettelbach's trial brief, meanwhile, shows that the sequence of events of the obstruction charge began in late summer 2002, when Kaschak applied for a patrolman's position with Austintown police and disclosed that he had, at Budd's direction, used excessive force on Easterly.
After a follow-up interview with Kaschak, the Austintown chief wrote a letter to the sheriff and delivered it in person.
A short while later, Budd, holding the letter in his hands, ordered Kaschak to write a "supplemental" incident report on the Easterly beating, yelled at the deputy and expressed anger that the Austintown chief's letter was now a matter of public record. Budd confiscated Kaschak's badge and keys, threatened to fire him and have him arrested.
Kaschak then wrote the false report for Budd.
Budd reviewed it then returned the deputy's property.
Budd, placed in charge of internal affairs by the sheriff, conducted no thorough investigation of himself, the government said. Later, when the FBI served a subpoena for all documentation related to the beating, "surprisingly, Budd was designated as the chief point contact regarding compliance with the subpoena," Dettelbach said.
In effect, Wellington had Budd investigate himself, the federal prosecutor said.
Commenting on the verdict, Wellington would say only that, "We live under a jury system and we have to abide by that decision."
Maj. Tom Scanlon took over for Budd shortly after he was indicted and will continue in that position.
Others accused
Trial, meanwhile, was avoided this week for Raymond Hull, Ryan Strange, John Rivera and Mark Dixon, all of whom pleaded guilty to their part in the Easterly beating. Before Monday, two retired supervisors, William Deluca and Ronald Denson, and Kaschak pleaded guilty.
After deputies Hull, Strange and Rivera pleaded, Wellington said their status switched from paid to unpaid leave and they had seven days to resign or face disciplinary action. The sheriff said the same applies to Budd.
Dixon has not been on the sheriff's payroll since March 2003, when indicted in an unrelated sexual battery case that is still pending. Kaschak resigned after pleading guilty in April 2004.
Unless Budd reaches a plea agreement with the government to avoid trial, the list of those testifying against him would include the ones who took part and pleaded guilty. That list has grown by the four who pleaded guilty in the past few days -- Hull, Rivera, Strange and Dixon.