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Scandal, tragedy and perseverance characterize top newsmakers list
Pavlik vs Hopkins
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Kelly "The Ghost" Pavlik lost to Bernard "The Executioner" Hopkins by unanimous decision in a 12-round bout Saturday October 18, 2008 in Atlantic City. Photos by William D. Lewis.
The Kaluza Verdict
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Virgil ( dad ) Minerva ( mom ) Chip - Cindy Zaborsky ( fiancee ) and Bianca ( sister ) Gilea all together again
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Don Hanni's funeral at the Mahoning County Courthouse
Boxer Kelly Pavlik lost in October, but he remains a local hero.
Staff Report
Some made readers hang their heads in disgust. Others’ stories drew tears or cheers, but the list of the Mahoning Valley’s top newsmakers of 2008 includes a colorful cast.
Democrat Marc Dann of Liberty stunned political insiders when he beat Republican Betty Montgomery to become Ohio’s attorney general in 2006.
His tenure, however, was brief and rife with scandal.
Dann resigned last May in the midst of controversy while facing possible impeachment.
Dann’s descent began when two female staffers filed sexual-harassment complaints March 31 against Anthony Gutierrez, then Dann’s director of general services and a longtime friend.
Just last week, an Ohio Inspector General’s report accused Dann and others of improperly using money from the state, his campaign fund and a transition corporation he established shortly after his 2006 election.
Although middleweight boxing champion Kelly Pavlik suffered his first professional loss in October to Bernard Hopkins, his star hasn’t dimmed among his fans.
The face of the Youngstown native, dubbed “The Ghost,” adorns billboards throughout the Valley, and Pavlik appears in television commercials for various companies and services.
It was a sad series of events that landed KFC manager Joe Kaluza on the newsmakers list.
The Youngstown father of two was shot in the neck and paralyzed during a March 24 robbery of the South Avenue restaurant’s bank deposit.
A jury in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court last September found the shooter, Taran Helms, and Helms’ girlfriend, Hattie Gilbert, guilty on all charges, and a judge sentenced the couple to 50 years each behind bars.
But the crimes drew an outpouring of support for the Kaluza family. Kaluza and his family issued a statement thanking the community:
“I would like to take this opportunity to thank the community for their continued thoughts, prayers, and donations through this holiday season,” the statement said. “The acts of kindness are too huge to list. If I try to list everything people have done — fund raisers given, donations, thoughts, prayers, visits — I know I would not even represent a small number of people that have made a difference in my life. The community response continues to be overwhelming and very much appreciated. On behalf of my family and myself thank you and merry Christmas from the bottom of our hearts.”
Romanian native Virgil Ciprian “Chip” Gilea spent the majority of 2008 behind bars.
Gilea, 30, of Austintown, immigrated to Boardman when he was 15. He was at work Dec. 27, 2007, when agents from the U.S. Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested him, saying he had stayed in the U.S. longer than he was authorized.
The family attributed the problem to a missed deadline by an attorney formerly retained by the family. The attorney didn’t alert family members to the problem though, they said.
Gilea waited for more than 10 months in jail as his family racked up more than $100,000 in legal fees trying to secure his release.
ICE, however, planned to deport him.
A series of Vindicator articles detailing the case attracted the attention of the Romanian Embassy in Washington, D.C. U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, also got involved.
On Nov. 21, Gilea was released and allowed to go home.
July saw the end of an era in Mahoning County politics.
Don L. Hanni Jr., the “Bull Moose,” who served 16 years as Mahoning County’s Democratic Party chairman and worked as a prominent defense attorney, died July 16.
The public viewing, conducted in the Mahoning County Courthouse rotunda, drew thousands of mourners who paid their last respects.
See the complete list here.