Wednesday, March 31, 2010
By PETER H. MILLIKEN
YOUNGSTOWN
Photo
Ivan Maldonado
Two defendants in a Youngstown State University payroll-department scandal have pleaded innocent in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court.
Ivan Maldonado, former president of the Association of Classified Employees at YSU and fired university payroll assistant, waived his appearance at his arraignment and entered his innocent plea in writing through his lawyer, J. Gerald Ingram.
Maldonado, 42, of Euclid Boulevard, remains free on $2,500 bond on 10 counts of theft, two counts each of falsification and theft in office and one count each of tampering with records and grand theft.
Appearing Tuesday before Magistrate Eugene Fehr and pleading innocent to tampering with records, falsification, theft and theft in office was Ron Granger, 45, of Shannon Road, Girard. Appearing with Granger was his lawyer, Neal Atway.
Granger, an administrative assistant in the university payroll department and former university payroll manager, was arrested Friday at YSU, jailed and released later that day on $1,000 bond.
The prosecution alleges Maldonado and Granger manipulated payroll figures last year to reduce the amount of a garnishment against Granger from Girard Municipal Court from $500 to $121 per pay period. Granger is on paid administrative leave from the university.
A third defendant, Anthony J. Maldonado, 25, of Bev Road, Boardman, who is Ivan Maldonado’s nephew, pleaded innocent at his Friday arraignment before Judge James C. Evans and remains free on $1,000 bond. His lawyer is Lou DeFabio.
Anthony Maldonado is charged with two counts of falsification and one count each of grand theft and tampering with records.
The indictment says that Ivan Maldonado, who had been a 20-year YSU employee, falsified information to allow his nephew to attend YSU and receive more than $30,000 worth of free tuition he wasn’t entitled to between 2003 and 2009.
The prosecution alleges Anthony Maldonado was not a dependent of Ivan’s as Ivan claimed, and that Anthony was earning well beyond the $3,500 annual- income ceiling for a dependent to be eligible for tuition remission. Ivan falsely claimed Anthony was his son, said Robert E. Bush Jr., chief of the criminal division of the county prosecutor’s office.
Only university employees, their spouses and their dependent children are entitled to free tuition.
Anthony should have known he was attending YSU free under false pretenses, Bush said.
All three men charged in this 24-count secret grand-jury indictment are tentatively set for trial beginning at 10 a.m. May 10 before Judge Evans.
Most of the charges against Ivan Maldonado pertain to his alleged submission between 1998 and 2006 of false documents, which caused the university to send checks to the Public Employees Retirement System on behalf of 10 full-time university employees, enabling them to receive retirement credit for their prior part-time YSU employment for which they’d waived retirement credit.
“They received the benefit of having their past uncovered employment covered by a monetary contribution to the retirement board,” Bush said.
None of these 10 people has been charged with any crime in this case.
“It’s an ongoing investigation, and we’re continuing to look at the activities of the people indicted and those that may have been named in the indictment that were not indicted,” Bush said.
The case has been investigated for 5 1‚Ñ2 months by the Ohio State Highway Patrol and YSU police.
“It wouldn’t surprise me if additional charges were filed” in this case, Bush added.
Among the 10 people who have not been charged are six listed in the university directory as current employees: Raymond J. Cruickshank, a groundskeeper; Sheila Maldonado, a human-resources benefits-management representative and the wife of Ivan Maldonado; Richard J. Sweany, administrative assistant in registration; Roman P. Swerdan, storeroom supervisor in procurement services; Mark A. Welton, network security analyst in network telecommunications; and Bernice M. Hamrock, administrative assistant in the payroll department.
“I would have no comment, and I’m right in the middle of a project,” Sweany said.
“I don’t want to talk to anybody about it,” Swerdan told a reporter.
Cruickshank, Hamrock, Welton and Sheila Maldonado did not respond to messages left for them at their university offices.
Four other people listed in the indictment — and also not charged with any crime — are not listed in any YSU employee directory over the past four years. They are: Cory V. Carfora, Michael A. Pieton, Frank Richards and Maria E. Volpe.
As to whether the 10 beneficiaries knew what Ivan Maldonado allegedly was doing on their behalf, Bush said: “I can’t answer that.”
YSU has about 1,200 full-time employees and about 800 part-time employees, said Ron Cole, director of university communications.
Ivan Maldonado was fired last July because of his unsatisfactory job performance and because he allegedly threatened another university employee, the university said.
Ivan Maldonado awaits trial April 12 and 13 in municipal court on a misdemeanor menacing charge in connection with that alleged threat.
“YSU has been active in providing information to the Ohio State Highway Patrol in this investigation. The university will continue to work hand-in-hand with state authorities and to ensure everyone on campus and in the community that the operations of YSU’s payroll office are above reproach,” the university said in a prepared statement.