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Former YSU employee pleads guilty
YOUNGSTOWN
A former administrative assistant and payroll manager at Youngstown State University who was indicted in a payroll scandal has agreed to cooperate with the prosecution as needed after pleading guilty to a single misdemeanor count.
Ron Granger, 46, of Shannon Road, Girard, pleaded guilty to dereliction of duty, a second-degree misdemeanor, which was reduced from a third-degree felony charge of theft in office.
Judge James C. Evans of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court sentenced Granger immediately to a year’s probation and a 90-day suspended jail term and fined him $750, with half of the fine suspended.
The court action occurred Dec. 3 and the documents were filed Wednesday.
The prosecution dropped felony charges of tampering with records, falsification and theft in the plea deal. Granger resigned from the university Nov. 15.
The Accountancy Board of Ohio website shows Granger has an active certified public-accountant’s license with no discipline pending.
The prosecution alleged Granger and co-defendant, Ivan Maldonado, a fired university payroll assistant, manipulated payroll figures last year to reduce the amount of a Girard Municipal Court garnishment against Granger from $500 to $121 per pay period.
The cases of Ivan Maldonado, 42, of Euclid Boulevard, former president of the Association of Classified Employees at YSU, and his nephew, Anthony J. Maldonado, 26, of Bev Road, Boardman, who were charged in the same indictment, are still pending.
Ivan Maldonado falsely claimed Anthony was his son to allow Anthony to attend YSU and receive more than $30,000 worth of free tuition he wasn’t entitled to between 2003 and 2009, according to Robert E. Bush Jr., assistant county prosecutor.