Flask has paid $1,900 of the $78,562 he was ordered to pay.

Flask has paid $1,900 of the $78,562 he was ordered to pay.
By ED RUNYAN
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
WARREN -- Ed Flask will get another chance to pay the money he owes the Ohio Ethics Commission before a visiting Trumbull County judge sends him to prison.
Flask, a former Mahoning Valley Sanitary District director, agreed to a compromise Wednesday in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court that requires him to pay $25,000 of about $76,000 he still owes because of a ruling in September 2000.
If he fails to pay that amount by Sept. 15, Judge Thomas P. Curran said he's prepared to send him to prison to serve a one-year sentence.
"If you fail to pay, come prepared that day for the sentence to be executed," Judge Curran told Flask.
Judge Curran said the court needs to have a resolution to the case by Sept. 17, or it will lose jurisdiction and any way of forcing Flask to pay the money to the ethics commission. That's because Flask's probation ends on that day.
Original sentence
Flask was originally sentenced to three years of probation in 2000, and that probation was extended two more years for not paying his restitution to the ethics commission.
Flask pleaded guilty to two felonies and seven misdemeanors relating to his acceptance of $2 million in money and gifts from people who did business with MVSD. The sanitary district supplies water from Meander Reservoir to 300,000 customers in Mahoning and Trumbull counties through member cities Youngstown and Niles.
Flask, dressed in a dark suit, didn't make any statement to the judge during the hearing, only saying he felt his lawyer had handled his case correctly.
Compromise
Flask and his lawyer, P. Michael DeAngelo of Columbus, agreed to the terms late in the day following a recess in the proceedings to work out a compromise with Portage County Prosecutor Victor Vigluicci, who served as special prosecutor.
Vigluicci said the $25,000 is a reasonable amount to ask Flask to pay because Flask had lost his law practice and earned only $2,181 in 2004, according to his 2004 tax return. The Ohio Attorney General's office also checked into his bank accounts. In court, Flask's lawyer said he was living with his mother.
Vigluicci noted there are also "serious questions of law" pertaining to whether another visiting judge, Richard Markus, was acting within his jurisdiction when he ordered Flask to pay the ethics commission for the $78,562 cost of its investigation. He said Flask's lawyer might still use this to appeal his sentence.
What he's paid
So far, Flask has paid $1,900 of the $78,562 -- $460 of it last month.
During the hearing, Flask's attorney maintained that Flask had paid all of the money he could over the five years since the sentence. He also said Flask had paid all of the court costs, $5,000 fine and served his 200 hours of community service. He still owes $260 in supervision fees to the Department of Probation that the judge says he owes by Sept. 15.
DeAngelo said the money to pay the $25,000 would have to come from gifts from Flask's family and friends.
"Rather than run the risk of incarceration, he [Flask] decided to tap his family and friends," Vigluicci said after the hearing.
DeAngelo said afterward the $25,000 compromise was not "what we hoped for" but that "Ed needs to get on with his life."
Vigluicci said he believes Flask will pay the $25,000 because it appeared the judge was serious about sending him to jail and that an appeal of the sentence would cost at least $25,000.
runyan@vindy.com