DeCapito pleads guilty to felony

DeCapito ran unsuccessfully against Commissioner Dan Polivka in 2004.
WARREN -- A failed candidate for Trumbull County commissioner has pleaded guilty to filing a false insurance claim after a January 2005 car fire at a gas station in Warren.
Phillip Oreste DeCapito, 47, of Eagles Loft, Cortland, accepted a plea agreement Monday in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court to a fifth-degree felony from the original fourth-degree felony charge.
He could be sentenced to between six and 12 months in prison and a $2,500 fine, but a prison term is not presumed necessary and is not mandatory, his plea agreement states.
Chuck Morrow, an assistant Trumbull County Prosecutor, said DeCapito agreed to pay for the cost of the investigation by the Ohio Department of Insurance.
According to DeCapito's indictment, a 2004 Ford Taurus he was driving caught fire.
Items claimed
He fraudulently claimed to Grange Mutual Insurance Co. that $9,181 of his property inside the car was destroyed.
The property included a computer, $2,399; cell phone, $265; scanner-copier, $399; briefcase, $129; camera, $160; CD player, $299; 160 compact discs, $2,400; two graphic calculators, $280; digital voice recorder, $150; American Girl doll, $199; Big Bertha golf clubs, $1,699; Big Bertha golf bag, $299; and more.
Morrow said the investigation determined that none of the items was in the car at the time of the fire.
A presentence investigation will be done, and DeCapito will appear in six to eight weeks for sentencing.
DeCapito ran as a Republican against incumbent Daniel E. Polivka, a Democrat, in 2004, for Trumbull County commissioner.