Former commissioner candidate posts bond in insurance fraud case

WARREN -- A former candidate for Trumbull County commissioner has been released on bond on a charge of insurance fraud.
Philip Oreste DeCapito, of Eagles Loft in Cortland, was released after posting a $5,000 bond set by Judge W. Wyatt McKay of Trumbull County Common Pleas Court.
DeCapito was arrested Wednesday after being secretly indicted by a Trumbull County grand jury.
According to the indictment, the former politician fraudulently reported in January that a 2004 Ford Taurus that he leased through his employer, CIT Group, caught fire while he as driving it.
He also claimed to Grange Mutual Insurance Co. that $9,181 of his own property that was inside the car was destroyed.
The property included a computer, $2,399; cell phone, $265; scanner-copier, $399; briefcase, $129; camera, $160; CD player, $299; 160 compact discs, $2,400; two graphic calculators, $280; digital voice recorder, $150; American Girl doll, $199; Big Bertha golf clubs, $1,699; Big Bertha golf bag, $299; and more.
The indictment says that the fire was confined to the area around the car's glove compartment and the immediate area. The property claimed destroyed wasn't in the vehicle.
DeCapito was an unsuccessful candidate for commissioner running as a Republican against incumbent Daniel E. Polivka, a Democrat, in 2004.