TRUMBULL COUNTY FBI investigates fraud allegations in Stuard's court

Judge Stuard says he has discontinued the policy of using stamped signatures.
By ED RUNYAN
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
WARREN -- A Howland housing contractor who lost a $565,000 judgment in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court in 2002 says the FBI is looking into his allegations that fraud was committed in the case.
David Miller of Howland sued the contractor, William Fleming, in the case over a condominium dispute. Judge John M. Stuard confirmed Monday that a Federal Bureau of Investigation agent had come to his office to look through the civil case file.
Fleming said he has questions about documents the judge either signed or stamped in the case. Fleming said he believes there are fraudulent documents.
Judge Stuard said he doesn't know much about the investigation and that neither he nor anyone on his staff has been interviewed by the agent. The judge said he is concerned by the investigation but added he knows he did nothing wrong.
Fleming, president of Sun Castle Enterprises Inc., was sued by Miller in 2000 over a condominium Fleming built for Miller in the Camden Pond neighborhood in Howland.
What happened
Miller won a judgment against Fleming for $139,425 on March 7, 2002, for unfair and deceptive sales practices. The judgment awarded Miller triple damages, attorney fees and costs, totaling $565,000.
Fleming, who failed to appear for deposition and a hearing before the judgment, filed for relief from the $565,000 judgment March 14, 2002. More than two years later, on Oct. 7, 2004, a judgment signed by Judge Stuard said Fleming had chosen not to pursue a motion for relief.
Last fall, Judge Stuard said the Oct. 7, 2004, filing containing a stamped version of his signature was inadvertent -- that a clerical mistake had allowed this decision to become official and therefore had to be reversed.
Monday, Judge Stuard said he has since found a copy of the filing with his original signature on it. He said he believes the case could have simply ended in October 2004 -- or that Fleming could have appealed the case to the 11th District Court of Appeals.
In an Oct. 21, 2005, entry, however, Judge Stuard removed himself from the case. The judge ruled that, to correct the Oct. 7, 2004, filing with the stamped signature, he must set aside the entries from 2004 that had denied Fleming's request to have relief from the $565,000 judgment.
Case reassigned
Judge Stuard said Monday that he removed himself from the case primarily because of accusations by Fleming's lawyer, Donald Ford Jr., that something improper had happened.
The case is now assigned to Visiting Judge Thomas P. Curran from Cuyahoga County and is pending.
Judge Stuard said that the practice of using stamped versions of his signature has been discontinued. His bailiff, Laurie A. Brown, had used the stamps for routine matters, he said.
Fleming said he did not contact the FBI about the matter but that Youngstown FBI agent Wallace Sines had contacted him about the case, and Fleming had provided him with the information he had.
John Kane, supervisor in charge of the Youngstown office of the FBI, said the agency does not acknowledge the cases it is working on because of the possibility that the accusations will be unfounded.
He explained that the FBI has jurisdiction anytime a case involves questions of public corruption, such as the ones prosecuted in Mahoning County in past years involving public officials' taking bribes.
"We're still here," he said.