Man faces charges in dealership investigation

By Denise Dick

The latest man arrested in the investigation worked as a collector for the auto dealership.

YOUNGSTOWN — A Rush Boulevard man, charged in connection with the ongoing investigation of a Canfield Road auto dealership, is being held on $750,000 bond.

Paul Lacey, 51, turned himself in to city police Wednesday night, said Boardman detective Glenn Patton. Patton is leading the investigation of Fat Man’s Auto Sales. The investigation includes agents and officers from the Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles and Ohio State Highway Patrol.

“He was the collector” for Fat Man’s, Patton said of Lacey.

Lacey faces charges of tampering with evidence, illegal-weapons possession and engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity.

He appeared Thursday morning in Youngstown Municipal Court via video arraignment, and Judge Robert Douglas set Lacey’s bond at $250,000 on each count.

Patton said that Lacey also is a registered sex offender from California.

Last week, police searched Lacey’s home and found two weapons, one handgun and one shotgun, he said. A black Ford Explorer and a tan Chevrolet S-10 pickup truck were towed from the home, and officers carried off documents related to the sale of vehicles at the car lot.

On Oct. 5, Patton and members of the Mahoning Valley Law Enforcement Task Force and state officers searched Fat Man’s, arresting its salesman Michael Mrosko, 32, of Youngstown, charging him with engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity.

During the search at the dealership, Lacey wanted to take a vehicle from the lot, claiming he was in the process of buying it, Patton said.

“We told him, ‘no,’ that all of the vehicles had to be inspected and identified,” the detective said. Twenty of the 46 vehicles were towed from the lot and remain impounded.

Lacey took the vehicle anyway, Patton said.

A city police sergeant found the vehicle at Lacey’s home with a duplicate sales booklet inside that contained numbers different from the original sales figures.

Mrosko is accused of withholding titles from people who bought vehicles at the business until the vehicles were paid off.

A dealership is supposed to place a lien on a title until it’s paid off. He’s also accused of issuing duplicate bills of sale for vehicles, authorities have said.

The owner of Fat Man’s, Jonathan Smail, 24, Jackson Street, Campbell, is charged with engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity.

A woman, Amber Emanuel, 23, of Struthers, is charged with title offenses as part of the investigation.

A mechanic at the lot, Jason Coughlin, 34, faces misdemeanor counts of marijuana possession and possession of drug paraphernalia.

Earlier this year, Mrosko’s commission as a notary public in Ohio was terminated, and he was permanently barred from serving in that capacity.

That decision stemmed from a 2007 Mahoning County Bar Association complaint against Mrosko. The complaint, filed by Atty. David C. Comstock Jr., accused Mrosko of notarizing a power of attorney assigning a vehicle title from a Cortland car dealership to an employee of Fat Man’s.

No one at the Cortland car dealer authorized the execution of the power of attorney. “The signature of its representative was forged,” the complaint said.

denise_dick@vindy.com