D-Day comes Thursday for grand jury investigating Oakhill purchase

Staff REPORT

YOUNGSTOWN

Decision time is coming as an extended grand jury deliberates this week on potential criminal conflicts of interest in Mahoning County’s 2006 purchase of Oakhill Renaissance Place.

In 10 known meetings with special prosecutors since February, the grand jury heard testimony from numerous witnesses and examined evidence in banker’s boxes full of documents.

Originally convened for four months ending April 30, the grand jury was extended five weeks through Thursday by the county’s common pleas judges.

The extension was requested by the special prosecutors, Dennis P. Will, Lorain County prosecutor, and Paul M. Nick, chief investigative counsel for the Ohio Ethics Commission.

At the request of Paul J. Gains, Mahoning County prosecutor, the common pleas judges appointed Will and Nick as special prosecutors for the Oakhill probe in November 2008.

After the grand jury deliberates, it may indict people on felony charges or misdemeanor charges, or it may issue no bills, meaning that it declines to indict someone. All grand jury proceedings are secret.

Oakhill is the former Forum Health Southside Medical Center.