ETHICS VIOLATIONS Flask pays obligations to Ohio Ethics Commission

The judge had threatened imprisonment if he didn't pay by Thursday.
WARREN -- Ed Flask, a former Mahoning Valley Sanitary District director, has apparently ended his legal battles over the improper gifts he received.
Flask paid the $25,260 he was ordered by a visiting Trumbull Common Pleas judge to provide.
Judge Thomas P. Curran last month ordered Flask to pay $25,000 of the $76,000 he owed to the Ohio Ethics Commission for investigation of his case. Up to that point, Flask had only paid $1,900.
Judge Curran told Flask he would be imprisoned for one year if he failed to pay by Thursday. His probation ends this week.
Compromise deal
Victor Vigluicci, the Portage County prosecutor who handled the case for the Trumbull County Prosecutor's office, had struck the compromise deal with Flask and his lawyer. His office reported that it received a check from Flask for $25,000.
Keith Evans, chief probation officer for the Trumbull County Adult Probation Department, said Flask also personally delivered a check Friday for the $260 he was ordered to pay his office. Evans said that amount is the total he owed his agency.
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.
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 P. Michael DeAngelo of Columbus said he was living with relatives.
DeAngelo also said Flask would have to tap into his friends and relatives to come up with the $25,000.
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