43
Outside prosecutor to represent judge at Ohio high court
Photo
Visiting Mahoning County Common Pleas Court Judge William H. Wolff Jr. from Kettering
Photo
Judge Maureen A. Sweeney
Photo
Prosecutor Paul Gains
YOUNGSTOWN
Judge Maureen A. Sweeney, administrative judge of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court, has approved the appointment of an outside prosecutor to represent a visiting judge in an action at the Ohio Supreme Court.
On Thursday, the Mahoning County commissioners approved a resolution appointing the Montgomery County Prosecutor’s Office in Dayton to represent Judge William H. Wolff Jr., the judge hearing the Oakhill Renaissance Place criminal conspiracy case, in an amount not to exceed $10,000.
The Vindicator and WFMJ-TV have asked the high court to issue a writ of prohibition that would bar Judge Wolff from sealing documents or closing proceedings in the Oakhill case.
Although Judge Wolff, of Kettering, has unsealed many pretrial documents in the case at the request of the newspaper and TV station, he has kept the bills of particulars, which detail the charges against the defendants, sealed from public view.
In her Tuesday judgment entry approving the commissioners’ action, Judge Sweeney observed that Mahoning County Prosecutor Paul J. Gains has determined that he and his assistants can’t represent Judge Wolff because Gains and members of his staff are witnesses in the Oakhill criminal case.
In the criminal case, five people and three companies are charged with conspiracy and other charges in a purported effort to impede the move of the Mahoning County Department of Job and Family Services from Cafaro Co.-owned rented quarters to Oakhill.
The county bought Oak-hill in 2006 and moved JFS there in 2007. Oakhill is the former Forum Health Southside Medical Center.
Defense lawyers in the criminal case have asked that the bills of particulars remain sealed until after the trial.
In ordering that the bills stay sealed, Judge Wolff said they contain information that may not be admissible in the trial; their release would make the selection of an impartial jury here unlikely; and the effort to seat an impartial jury should begin here.
If the judge is correctly concerned about prejudice, the remedy is to move the trial to another Ohio county, the Ohio Supreme Court ruled as recently as last April, argued Marion H. Little Jr., the lawyer for the newspaper and TV station.
Those charged in the criminal case with conspiracy and other charges are Anthony M. Cafaro Sr., former president of the Cafaro Co.; the Cafaro Co. and its affiliates, the Ohio Valley Mall Co. and the Marion Plaza Inc.; county Commissioner John A. McNally IV; county Auditor Michael V. Sciortino; former county Treasurer John B. Reardon; and former county JFS Director John Zachariah.
McNally abstained from Thursday’s vote.
The Oakhill criminal trial is to begin June 6 in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court.