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Letters: Consider Cafaro’s gifts
By PETER H. MILLIKEN
CLEVELAND
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John J. Cafaro
Six people whose causes have benefited from John J. Cafaro’s financial gifts have written letters asking a federal judge to consider Cafaro’s philanthropy at his sentencing next week.
U.S. District Judge Kathleen O’Malley will sentence the former Mahoning Valley businessman at 12:30 p.m. Tuesday.
Cafaro, who retired as vice president of the Cafaro Co. on Dec. 31, pleaded guilty to making a false statement concerning a contribution he made to his daughter, Capri Cafaro’s, unsuccessful 2004 congressional campaign.
“Over the years, J.J. and Jan [Cafaro’s wife] have been true patrons to their parish,” wrote Monsignor John DeMarinis, pastor of St. Anthony Church in Youngstown, where the Cafaros worship.
“In addition to supporting the church financially, J.J. has supported the other parishioners. Anytime a person was in trouble, time and time again, he was there to lend a hand,” the pastor wrote to the judge on church letterhead.
Recently, the Cafaros were nominated as Knights of Malta, the Roman Catholic Church’s highest secular honor, which is “only given to those who demonstrate exceptional charity and service to the less fortunate,” Monsignor DeMarinis added.
“In my eyes, he is, and always will be, the patron saint of the Gleaners’ Foodbank,” on Pyatt Street, which feeds the needy, wrote Joseph R. Lordi, food bank executive director.
In 1985, Cafaro called him after learning through the press that the food bank was planning to close due to a lack of money and supplies, Lordi recalled.
Cafaro rescued the food bank financially, gave it business advice, sat on its board of directors and arranged for lawyers to properly prepare the food bank’s nonprofit organization forms, Lordi wrote.
Pete Gabriel, a retired WKBN radio air personality, and Philip Welce, a former member of the Cincinnati Shrine Hospital’s board of governors, wrote to commend Cafaro for contributing more than $120,000 over 30 years to the club’s Christmas gift-giving program for needy Valley families.
Kathleen Bowman of Austintown, winner of a gold medal in archery at the 2009 national Senior Olympics in Palo Alto, Calif., said Cafaro, whom she had never met before, was the only one who responded to her appeal for funds to defray her travel costs to attend that competition.
Without his help, she would not have been able to compete, she wrote. “He did this to help me, a stranger; I know he’d do the same to help others,” she wrote.
Detective Sgt. John Rusnak of the Campbell Police Department wrote on police letterhead concerning Cafaro’s donations that made possible the establishment of canine police units in Struthers and Campbell.
“Jay is a hard-working and dedicated family man, who has earned the love and respect of his children, family and friends,” wrote his wife, Janet.
Cafaro caused an official of his daughter’s congressional campaign to falsely report he had given only $2,000 to her campaign, when, in fact, he gave an additional $10,000 in the form of a loan to a campaign staff member for the campaign’s benefit, the U.S. Attorney said. The legal limit for campaign gifts by individuals was $2,000.
Capri Cafaro of Liberty, D-32nd, is an Ohio state senator and senate minority leader.
Read the letters at Vindy.com.