Top court accepts Cronin’s resignation from law practice

COLUMBUS

The Ohio Supreme Court has accepted the resignation of Maureen A. Cronin, a former Mahoning County Common Pleas Court judge, from the practice of law in Ohio.

The court said it was accepting her resignation with disciplinary action pending.

However, it said the disciplinary report had been filed under seal by the top court’s disciplinary counsel and that her case is disposed. The court did not say why the disciplinary report is under seal.

Cronin, 57, of Canfield Road, Youngstown, signed her affidavit of resignation on March 6, just 2 1/2 weeks before she entered prison on March 24 at the Federal Correctional Institution in Greenville, Ill. Cronin’s scheduled release date from prison is March 8, 2012.

The affidavit of resignation, notarized by her lawyer, J. Gerald Ingram, wasn’t filed at the top court until July 16. In the affidavit, Cronin, who retired from the bench in 2007, said she was not admitted to law practice in another jurisdiction.

U.S. District Judge Sara Lioi in Akron sentenced Cronin to prison after she pleaded guilty to two felony counts of honest services mail fraud.

In pleading guilty, Cronin admitted accepting and failing to report an $18,000, no-interest cash loan from Flora Cafaro, part owner of the Cafaro Co., which had numerous civil lawsuits before her while she was a judge.

Flora Cafaro wasn’t charged in the Cronin case, but she and Atty. Martin Yavorcik are charged with money laundering in connection with an allegedly concealed $15,000 gift Flora Cafaro gave to Yavorcik’s unsuccessful 2008 campaign for county prosecutor.