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Judge scolds prosecution in Go Go case
By PETER H. MILLIKEN
YOUNGSTOWN
Judge Maureen A. Sweeney lashed out at a top assistant Mahoning County prosecutor, telling him she’ll impose sanctions on him if he doesn’t provide full disclosure of evidence to the defense in the Go Go Girls Cabaret case by Monday morning.
“Any video you have, they should have, and they should be able to view it,” an angry Judge Sweeney loudly told Robert E. Bush during a Friday pretrial hearing.
“You have the burden. You have to produce any evidence you have,” the judge told Bush, who is chief of the criminal division of the prosecutor’s office.
“We’ve never not complied” with the state law that requires the prosecution to disclose evidence to the defense before the trial in a criminal case, Bush said.
Judge Sweeney, of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court, had given the prosecution a July 15 deadline to disclose evidence to the defense in a process known as discovery.
“Go through every video that you have and make sure they have exact, playable copies,” the judge ordered.
The cabaret’s lawyer, James Vitullo, complained that some videos weren’t provided to the defense by the prosecution and that others aren’t playable, and that witness lists and statements and club owner Sebastian Rucci’s audiotaped statement to Austintown Police Detective Jeff Solic weren’t provided to the defense.
The videos consist of the Clarkins Drive club’s confiscated security video and video made by undercover police informants, Vitullo said.
“I surely have a right to this evidence,” Rucci told the judge.
Vitullo urged the judge to impose a sanction that would bar the prosecution from using any undisclosed evidence in the trial.
Bush said the club’s security video is in a nonstandard format. “We didn’t delete any files. It’s in its raw state,” Bush said of the video. “We’re continuing to cooperate.”
Rucci, Curtis “C.J.” Jones, Derrick L. Dozier, Wayne Penny and Peter E. Sciullo II are charged with engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity, money laundering, perjury and two counts each of promoting prostitution. Jones, Dozier, Penny and Scuillo were club employees last year.
Robert Neill, former club manager, is charged with one count of promoting prostitution.
The judge also chastised Atty. Martin Yavorcik for not ensuring the presence of his client, Jones, who was absent from court Friday.
Yavorcik said he learned of Friday’s hearing on short notice and failed in his attempts to notify Jones of that hearing.
Atty. Thomas E. Zena, who represents Dozier, apologized for being late for the hearing.
“You can’t get your client here. You can’t be on time. You should be ashamed of yourselves,” Judge Sweeney told Yavorcik and Zena. Friday’s hearing was scheduled more than two months ago, she added.
The case will go on trial as scheduled Oct. 18, the judge told the lawyers and their clients. “I expect everyone to be ready to go on Oct. 18,” she concluded.