Villani's resignation poses problems for prosecutor

Mahoning County Prosecutor Paul Gains is being coy about the resignation of an assistant prosecutor, Michael Villani, but he'll soon run out of places to hide and will have to answer this question: Why didn't Villani or anyone else from the prosecutor's office accept an offer from Atty. Alan J. Matavich to review and copy documents he intended to use in the defense of his client, Ida Hayes of New Springfield? Hayes is charged with tampering with records.
Indeed, Matavich, after realizing that no one from Gains' staff had bothered to access his files, took it upon himself to copy the material -- mostly police reports and court documents -- and deliver them to Villani on Feb. 5.
In other words, the assistant prosecutor still got the records a week before Hayes' trial was scheduled to begin in the courtroom of Common Pleas Judge James Evans.
Yet, on Feb. 12, Villani asked for and was granted a continuance on the grounds that he had not had time to review what was in the defense's files because "they just dropped it on me." The words in quotations are those used by Judge Evans in recalling what the assistant prosecutor had said in his courtroom.
But now that the time-line has been made public by Vindicator Crime Reporter Patty Meade, who reviewed all the court filings and shared the information with the judge, the prosecutor and his chief of the criminal division, Robert E. Bush Jr., this much is clear: Villani misled the court.
Yet, Gains will not say whether such an act rises to the level of a firing offense. He will only acknowledge that Villani has resigned with two-weeks' notice -- without providing a reason.
On the other hand, Judge Evans has no qualms about characterizing what occurred in his courtroom.
"That's what irritates me, that obviously was the lie," he said, after being told by The Vindicator that the defense documents had arrived in the prosecutor's office a week before trial was set to begin.
Bar Association
But while the prosecutor remains coy about the matter, there is one issue he cannot duck: That this is just the latest in a series of missteps by Gains' staff that reflect poorly on the prosecutor and beg the question, "Who's minding the store?"
It is noteworthy that the staff was bolstered by five assistant prosecutors after county commissioners gave into Gains' demand for more money to address the huge caseload.
The increased staffing is not lost on Judge Evans and at least one of his colleagues in the Common Pleas Court, Judge Maureen Cronin, who also has locked horns with the prosecutor over his office's mismanagement of cases.
Gains has tried to blame the judges for failing to adequately schedule cases for trial, but the Villani situation is an embarrassing turn of events for him.
Given that Villani's mother, Barb, is Gains' secretary, we wonder whether the prosecutor can objectively look at the situation and mete out the appropriate punishment if the assistant prosecutor is found to have lied to Judge Evans and to his immediate superior, Chief of the Criminal Division Bush.
We would suggest an independent review of Villani's actions.
If the bar association is conducting an investigation, it would be in the context of lawyers' code of conduct. The bar would not address the issue of Villani's employment status.
There must a definitive answer to this question: If Villani is guilty of what Judge Evans alleges, shouldn't he be fired, rather than being permitted to resign?