Former Trumbull commissioner reports to prison in Youngstown

The businessman who gave Tsagaris the money has never been identified.

STAFF REPORT

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

Tsagaris, 75, of Howland, a former Trumbull County commissioner, began serving his term last Friday, one week before Christmas, as Judge Sara Lioi had suggested 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 flown to his ultimate destination at a federal prison.

The NOCC is a male-only low-security private prison.

Tsagaris violated the terms of his house arrest by spending time in a McDonald’s restaurant and in a cigar store and by 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.

The businessman has not been identified, despite a Vindicator Freedom of Information Act request for the name of the businessman and repeated attempts to secure the name from prosecutors and the FBI.

runyan@vindy.com