Strollo misses deadline to find witness

YOUNGSTOWN -- It appears imprisoned ex-mob boss Lenny Strollo has missed his postmarked May 1 deadline to find his star witness -- who reportedly went to Australia without supplying a crucial affidavit.
In January, Strollo filed a motion in Cleveland federal court asking that U.S. District Judge Kathleen M. O'Malley vacate his sentence and schedule a hearing to establish the facts. He said he would file an affidavit from Paul Lynch that alleges ineffective assistance of counsel.
The affidavit was due in March but the judge extended the deadline to May 1, allowing a postmark on that date to suffice. She granted Strollo's request for more time to "re-establish communication with Paul Lynch."
As of Thursday, the affidavit was not recorded in his case. It wasn't immediately clear if the judge would grant more time.
Strollo, in a letter Judge O'Malley received March 17, said he had been trying diligently to contact Lynch for weeks to get the affidavit. He said that, as a government witness, his mail is delayed by two or more weeks because he is in the Witness Protection Program and the mail must go through Washington, D.C.
"I've just been advised that [Lynch] is currently out of the country and from what I gather he's in Australia," Strollo wrote to the judge in March. "I spoke to him prior to his trip ... he advised me that the affidavit in question was sitting on his desk. Unfortunately, he left the country before sending it off to me."
Strollo, 74, of Canfield, is serving a sentence of 12 years and eight months. He is acting as his own lawyer in the civil lawsuit.
Plea agreement
He alleges that Buffalo, N.Y., lawyer Herbert L. Greenman failed to inform him of a plea agreement that was more favorable than the one he accepted in February 1999. The federal inmate doesn't say what the more favorable plea offer was.
"Early in this case, the government told my retained counsel [Greenman] that it desired my cooperation in convicting other defendants named in the indictment and made a plea offer substantially more favorable than the plea agreement I ultimately entered into," Strollo said in his motion. "The terms of this offer are outlined in the affidavit of Paul Lynch."
The government, represented by Matthew B. Kall, an assistant U.S. attorney, has said the claim that a better offer was made is simply untrue.
Strollo's claim "rests on unsubstantiated, unverified allegations," Kall said in court papers. The claim that a "prior, more favorable plea offer was made to his attorney is simply untrue because no other plea offer was made to any of petitioner's attorneys."
Strollo has been in federal custody since he was indicted in December 1997. His prison location is confidential.
He wasn't sentenced until Jan. 27, 2004. By then, federal prosecutors had exhausted his wealth of knowledge and used his testimony to convict associates.
Strollo, convicted of racketeering and filing a false tax return, will serve three years' supervised release and do 250 hours community service after he is released from prison.
With good time, Strollo could be released by late summer 2008.