Federal judge to sentence Cafaro today

Staff Report

CLEVELAND

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John J. Cafaro

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State Sen. Capri Cafaro (D-Liberty)

John J. Cafaro, retired Cafaro Co. vice president, is to be sentenced by U.S. District Judge Kathleen O’Malley at 12:30 p.m. today.

Cafaro, 58, of Hubbard, pleaded guilty to making a false statement about a contribution he gave to help the unsuccessful 2004 congressional campaign of his daughter, Sen. Capri Cafaro of Liberty, D-32nd, who is now the Ohio Senate minority leader.

John Cafaro caused his daughter’s campaign committee to falsely report to the Federal Election Commission that 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 her campaign manager, Robert J. Schuerger of Columbus, for the campaign’s benefit, the U.S. attorney said.

The loan was intended to help Schuerger pay his law- school tuition debt, and there’s no evidence Schuerger used, or intended to use, any of the loan money as a campaign contribution, Cafaro’s lawyer, Ralph E. Cascarilla of Cleveland, said in a sentencing memorandum. There’s also no evidence the loan was intended to influence the candidate, Cascarilla said.

The elder Cafaro has a 2002 conviction for bribing former U.S. Rep. James A. Traficant Jr. Despite that conviction, Cascarilla’s sentencing memorandum in the current case said federal sentencing guidelines call for Judge O’Malley to place Cafaro on up to six months’ probation and fine him between $500 and $5,000.

But at Cafaro’s arraignment in March, Cascarilla and U.S. District Judge John Adams, who later recused himself from the case, agreed that Cafaro likely faces up to six months in prison for the falsification offense.