Cronin found in contempt of order

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Former Mahoning County Common Pleas Judge Maureen A. Cronin

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Flora Cafaro

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

The Ohio Supreme Court has found Maureen A. Cronin, the imprisoned former Mahoning County judge, in contempt of a court order.

The top court said Thursday she failed to satisfy its order to file an affidavit of compliance with terms of her resignation from law practice on or before Oct. 8, 2010.

The top court required her to verify in that affidavit that she had surrendered her certificate of admission to the bar and attorney-registration card to the clerk of the state’s top court.

On March 6, 2010, less than three weeks before she entered federal prison, Cronin signed an affidavit saying she was resigning from law practice.

A state Supreme Court spokesman said the court can’t comment on specific cases, but he said those found in contempt can be fined or jailed.

Cronin, 57, of Canfield Road, Youngs-town, resigned from her judgeship on the county’s common pleas court in July 2007.

A federal judge fined her $4,000 and imprisoned her after she pleaded guilty to honest-services mail fraud.

Cronin admitted taking, and not reporting on a state disclosure form, an $18,000, no-interest cash loan from Flora Cafaro, part owner of the Cafaro Co., while that company had cases pending in her courtroom.

Cronin is scheduled to be released from the Federal Correctional Institution in Greenville, Ill., on March 8, 2012.