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Investigation finds no wrongdoing at Oakhill
Oakhill metal furnishings removal is a dead issue, a former deputy sheriff says.
YOUNGSTOWN — No wrongdoing occurred in the removal and disposal of metal furnishings from Oakhill Renaissance Place in April 2007, says a former Mahoning County deputy sheriff who supervised day-reporting inmates performing the removal work.
“There was no wrongdoing with the commissioners, the sheriff’s department or myself,” said John DeMart, who went on disability retirement from the sheriff’s department later in 2007.
The FBI, the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation and the county sheriff’s department have concluded their probes, and nobody has been charged with any crime in this case, DeMart said at Thursday’s county commissioners’ meeting.
“There was no blame on any of you four, and the sooner people realize that, the county can move on and go on to more important things,” DeMart told county Commissioners Anthony T. Traficanti, John A. McNally IV and David N. Ludt, and Administrator George J. Tablack.
In preparation for the July 2007 move of the county’s Department of Job and Family Services into Oakhill, the day-reporting inmates removed metal cabinets, sinks and stretchers that had been left in the former Forum Health Southside Medical Center.
One day-reporting inmate, who died last year, collected $2,606.50 from a local scrapyard, where he sold almost 2 tons of stainless-steel furnishings that had been removed from Oakhill, according to a sheriff’s department investigative report.
That inmate, Joseph T. Yaksich Sr., told Commander Leonard Sliwinski of the sheriff’s department that he shared the proceeds with another inmate, but not with any county employee.
Sheriff Randall A. Wellington said his department’s probe concluded no crime was committed.
Prosecutor Paul J. Gains said allowing inmates to cash in was a violation of day-reporting inmate program policy but not a crime.
The county bought Oakhill in July 2006 in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for use as a county office complex.
“He’s a guy that probably feels like a victim, and his job was to report to the sheriff’s office for the period he was employed there,” Tablack said of DeMart after the meeting.
In statements to Sliwinski, DeMart said Kurt Bucheit, who was then the county’s project manager at Oakhill, and Bucheit’s staff ordered the metal furnishings removed and Bucheit allowed them to be taken from the trash bin. Bucheit resigned from his county job in March of this year and could not be reached to comment.
McNally declined to comment on DeMart’s remarks.
milliken@vindy.com