DeCapito receives 5 years' probation

WARREN -- Philip O. DeCapito, a onetime candidate for Trumbull County commissioner, has been sentenced to five years' probation, $400 in restitution and a $1,000 fine for filing a false insurance claim.
DeCapito, 47, of Eagles Loft, Cortland, appeared Tuesday in the Trumbull County Common Pleas courtroom of Judge Andrew Logan to receive the sentence on the fourth-degree felony of insurance fraud. He pleaded guilty June 12.
Chuck Morrow, an assistant Trumbull County prosecutor, said the restitution is to repay the Ohio Department of Insurance for an investigation of DeCapito's case. He will also pay court costs and submit to DNA testing.
According to DeCapito's indictment, he filed a fraudulent claim to Grange Mutual Insurance Co. after a January 2005 car fire, claiming that $9,181 of his property was destroyed inside the car. An investigation determined that none of the items were in the car, Morrow said.
DeCapito ran unsuccessfully as a Republican against incumbent Commissioner Daniel E. Polivka, a Democrat, in 2004.