Trumbull grand jury indicts Liberty woman

The county elections board was getting the signatures of dead residents.

By TIM YOVICH

VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF

WARREN — The Trumbull County grand jury secretly indicted a 42-year-old Liberty Township woman for falsifying names on petitions to get a statewide partial smoking ban on the ballot.

Lisa Gaetano, whose last known address was Fifth Avenue, pleaded innocent to a charge of making false certification or statement concerning a petition, a felony.

She appeared Thursday before Judge Thomas M. Stuard of Trumbull County Common Pleas Court. She was released on a personal bond with a pre-trial scheduled for Dec. 13.

Kelly Pallante, county elections director, said Gaetano submitted petitions to place an issue on the November 2006 general election ballot that would allow smoking only in bars, bowling alleys, enclosed areas of restaurants and some other area.

Voters statewide approved an alternative issue that banned smoking in all public areas.

Pallante said her staff checked the signatures on the petition to those on election records and found that some didn’t match.

She explained that this occurred on petitions filed by Gaetano and another circulator, both of whom were referred to the county prosecutor’s office.

Some of the names on the petitions were of deceased people, including the father of a former elections board employee’s father. She can’t recall if the signatures of the dead were on the petitions circulated by Gaetano or the other person.

“We’re doing our duty when we check the signatures,” Pallante said.

She noted that all signatures are checked because violations of the elections laws are serious.

Turning in the false signatures of the deceased also was caught this year in Ashland County.

An ex-convict illegally gathered petitions against strip club regulations in September with 15 of the signatures of dead residents.

Included was the name of longtime Judge Robert Henderson of Ashland County Common Pleas Court who was dead.

The matter is similar to the case involving signatures for the congressional candidacy of Randy Walter, who was seeking to unseat incumbent U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan of Niles, D-17. Walter withdrew from the campaign.

Four people pleaded guilty to falsifying the petitions, including Walter’s mother-in-law, 66-year-old Grace Hreno of Niles. She was fined $50 and costs Wednesday by Judge W. Wyatt McKay of common pleas court.

yovich@vindy.com