Former police chief steps in as county's assistant prosecutor

Bush is a former city and county assistant prosecutor.
YOUNGSTOWN -- The city's former police chief is Mahoning County's newest assistant prosecutor.
Atty. Robert E. Bush Jr. officially joined the county prosecutor's office Tuesday, nearly one week after he was not renamed as police chief by new Youngstown Mayor Jay Williams. Bush had served as police chief for former Mayor George M. McKelvey.
Bush will work in the criminal division of the prosecutor's office and will be assigned to the courtroom of Maureen A. Cronin of common pleas court.
Bush was hired to fill the vacancy created by Assistant Prosecutor Jay Macejko, who will begin his new job Tuesday as Youngstown city prosecutor. The former city prosecutor, Dionne Almasy, also was not reappointed by Williams.
"He can hit the ground running," says county Prosecutor Paul J. Gains, noting that Bush previously worked in that office. Bush also was Youngstown law director under McKelvey, and he was an assistant city prosecutor to Judge Cronin before she came to the county bench, Gains said.
It's been a while since Bush has tried a criminal case, "but he's investigated a lot of them," Gains said. As police chief, he worked with the U.S. Marshal Office and U.S. Attorney Greg White in an initiative to get guns and gun users off city streets. His relationships with those entities are "beneficial to this county," Gains said.
Bush said he kept his law license current while he was police chief. "That's something I really cherish, my law license," he said.