Tsagaris reports to prison in Youngstown

YOUNGSTOWN — James Tsagaris reported to the Northeast Ohio Correctional Center on Hubbard Road here on Friday to begin serving his nine-month prison term for violating his probation on two counts of honest-services mail fraud.

Tsagaris, 75, of Howland, a former Trumbull County commissioner, began serving his term one week before Christmas, as Judge Sara Lioi had promised in Akron Federal Court on Dec. 10.

Ryan Helfrich, a deputy U.S. Marshal in Akron, said Tsagaris will most likely spend two to four weeks in Youngstown before he is airlifted to his ultimate destination at another federal prison. The NOCC is a male-only low-security prison.

Tsagaris violated the terms of his house arrest by spending time in a McDonald’s restaurant and in a cigar store and taking his sister to doctor’s appointments and to the grocery store, federal officials said.

A federal prosecutor said Tsagaris’ conduct on probation showed “complete and utter disregard” for the terms of his probation but said it would be acceptable for Tsagaris to report to federal prison after the holidays.

Judge Lioi, however said Tsagaris’ conduct “seems to flaunt and disregard the punishment that was imposed” and said she didn’t care whether his prison term caused him to spend the holidays in prison and ordered him to report within 10 days.

Tsagaris took a $36,551 loan that he never repaid 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.

For the complete story, see Wednesday’s Vindicator and Vindy.com