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Former Judge Cronin pleads guilty to felony mail fraud
AKRON — Maureen A. Cronin, a former Mahoning County Common Pleas Court judge, left the federal courthouse here without comment after pleading guilty to two felony counts of honest- services mail fraud.
Cronin, 56, of Canfield Road, Youngstown, entered her plea at her arraignment Tuesday before U.S. District Judge Sara Lioi, who will sentence her at noon Feb. 23 after a pre- sentence investigation.
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.
During her hourlong plea hearing, Cronin gave brief answers under oath as Judge Lioi thoroughly questioned her as to whether she understood the charges against her and their severity, the trial rights she would be waiving with her guilty plea and the consequences of a guilty plea.
Cronin said she understood all of the above and that her plea was entirely voluntary.
In sharp contrast to her loquaciousness when she served as a common pleas judge, Cronin gave terse answers to Judge Lioi’s questions, saying, “Yes, your honor,” “No, your honor,” and “I understand, your honor.”
When Judge Lioi asked how she pleaded to the charges, Cronin replied: “Guilty, your honor,” and Judge Lioi then found her guilty.
Judge Lioi said she would be taking into account a wide variety of factors, including Cronin’s prior criminal record, in a complex numerical point system in determining Cronin’s sentence. Cronin has two DUI convictions.
Judge Lioi also told Cronin the formula calls for her to get favorable consideration for accepting responsibility by pleading guilty, but her having been a public official would work against her under that formula.
Judge Lioi and Justin Roberts, the assistant U.S. attorney prosecuting the case, told Cronin she faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine on each count.
But a source familiar with the FBI investigation of Cronin said she can expect a 12- to 18-month federal-prison sentence.
After the plea hearing, Cronin surrendered her passport to a courtroom deputy as ordered by Judge Lioi.
The federal judge released Cronin on an unsecured $20,000 bond, telling her she may not possess a firearm, drink alcohol or leave the Northern District of Ohio and must maintain residence at her current address, pending sentencing.
Cronin told Judge Lioi she was not under the influence of alcohol or drugs during the plea hearing.
Roberts told Judge Lioi he was not seeking to have Cronin jailed pending sentencing. “We have no reason to be concerned about nonappearance” for future court proceedings, the federal prosecutor said.
After taking the loan in the back seat of the executive’s car, Cronin 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.
Roberts 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 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 benefited that businessman.
Neither Roberts nor Cronin’s lawyer, J. Gerald Ingram, would comment on Cronin’s case after court Tuesday.