No date set to continue hearing regarding finance allegations

Joseph J. Angelo improperly used $4,100 from three checks, it's alleged.
By JEFF ORTEGA
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
COLUMBUS -- The Ohio Elections Commission on Thursday continued to a future date a hearing on potential campaign finance allegations against a former Trumbull County commissioner.
Phil Richter, commission executive director, said a lawyer for Joseph J. Angelo Jr. was close to compiling a response for Angelo.
Richter and commission members were trying to determine the date of the next hearing.
The allegations were brought by Victor V. Vigluicci, the Portage County prosecutor who is acting as a special prosecutor in an apparently unrelated probe of Trumbull County purchasing practices.
According to the complaint, Angelo, from 1999 to 2002, had contributions of $25 or less that "significantly exceeded amounts traceable to the campaign bank account." The complaint says that the total amount of contributions received by the Angelo campaign but not deposited, according to records, is $7,805.
"Further, there is no indication from available records that the money was used as legitimate and verifiable campaign expenses," the complaint said.
The checks
The complaint against Angelo also alleges that three checks totaling $4,100 were written from Angelo's campaign bank account to him or his wife as loans. One for $1,000 was payable to Angelo's wife, Toni, and two checks totaling $3,100 were made payable to Angelo.
Angelo was defeated in the 2004 Democratic primary election.
Earlier this year, the elections commission found, in another complaint brought by Vigluicci, that Warren Mayor Michael J. O'Brien violated state elections laws in how his campaign handled some political contributions from 2000 to 2003 while O'Brien was a Trumbull County commissioner.
The commission fined O'Brien $1,875 in that case.