Second trial for ex-officer Budd begins Tuesday

The trial will cover three counts, despite a motion on a fourth count by Budd's lawyer.
YOUNGSTOWN -- A federal judge isn't giving ex-Mahoning County Deputy Sheriff Michael Budd a chance to wipe away his guilty verdict linked to an inmate beating.
U.S. District Judge Lesley Brooks Wells, in a 20-page order issued Wednesday, denied a motion by his attorneys that sought a new trial on the first count in his four-count indictment. On March 1, a jury found Budd guilty of one prong of the two-prong first count and deadlocked on the remaining three counts.
A second trial for the three counts begins Tuesday in Cleveland federal court. In counts two through four, the government alleges he ordered the beating of inmate Tawhon Easterly and personally beat inmates Stephen Blazo and Brandon Moore.
The first count in Budd's indictment states he conspired to violate Easterly's civil rights "and" conspired to obstruct justice. The judge told jurors they could reach a verdict on both elements or reach a split verdict as long as the verdict was unanimous.
Jurors believed Budd obstructed justice when he withheld from the FBI a letter that named him as the supervisor who directed deputies to beat an inmate in 2001. The panel couldn't reach a decision on the civil rights prong of the count.
New trial motion
Budd, 44, of Boardman, is represented by Youngstown attorney Martin E. Yavorcik and Poland attorney Sebastian Rucci. In a motion for a new trial on the first count, they contended that Judge Wells was wrong to instruct the jury that a split decision on the first count was permissible.
The lawyers said the judge, in effect, amended the indictment with the instruction she gave the jury. They argued over language construction, saying the indictment alleged Budd violated rights "and" obstructed justice. The judge allowed jurors to find him guilty of one "or" the other.
The judge said none of Budd's lawyers' combined objections, raised for the first time, about the conspiracy charge in count one, the jury instructions and introduction of certain evidence, warrant a new trial "or any other relief."
Rucci, traveling back from Philadelphia on Wednesday night, said he hadn't had a chance to read the judge's order.
Yavorcik could not be reached.
Budd was demoted to deputy after indictment in October 2004, he had held the rank of major. He resigned from the sheriff's department on March 2.