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Former Mahoning judge scheduled to plead guilty
AKRON — Maureen A. Cronin, a former Mahoning County Common Pleas Court judge, is scheduled to plead guilty in federal court next week to two felony counts of honest-services mail fraud.
Cronin, of Canfield Road, Youngstown, is set for an arraignment and guilty-plea hearing at 9 a.m. Tuesday before U.S. District Judge Sara Lioi, who will sentence her at a later date. Cronin is represented by Atty. J. Gerald Ingram of Boardman.
Cronin can expect a 12-to-18-month federal prison sentence, a source familiar with the FBI investigation said.
Cronin, who served as a common pleas judge from 1995 to 2007, pleaded guilty to taking and concealing an $18,000 no-interest cash loan, with no collateral or payment schedule, from a senior executive of a business that had more than 50 civil lawsuits before her.
After taking the loan in the back seat of the executive’s car, she made no payments on it as she continued to preside over the company’s cases, the prosecution said.
She failed to report the loan as required on state financial- disclosure statements in 2006 and 2007, which she filed by mail, according to a bill of information filed by the U.S. attorney’s office, which did not identify the lender or the company involved.
When a lawyer is convicted of a felony, the Ohio Supreme Court suspends that person’s law license on an interim basis, and the state’s disciplinary counsel launches a formal investigation, a top court spokesman said. Cronin has an active license to practice law in Ohio.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Justin J. Roberts, who is prosecuting the case, filed a notice that the Cronin case and that of James Tsagaris of Howland, a former Trumbull County commissioner, are related.
On Thursday, Judge Lioi sent Tsagaris to federal prison for nine months for violating his probation by repeatedly leaving home without authorization while he was on electronically-monitored house arrest.
Tsagaris, 75, had pleaded guilty to two counts of the same charge and was sentenced to three years’ probation, including one year of EMHA, and fined $4,000.
He was accused of taking a $36,551 loan from an unidentified local businessman in late 2004, while he was a commissioner, without reporting it on state financial disclosure forms in 2005 and 2006, and then voting on matters that benefitted that businessman.