Wednesday, May 18, 2011
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Lisa Antonini
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Prosecutor Paul Gains
YOUNGSTOWN
All indications point to a guilty plea by Lisa A. Antonini, who abruptly resigned as Mahoning County treasurer within hours of being charged with a single felony count of honest-services mail fraud in a bill of information.
“My experience with bills of information is that there has already been an agreement worked out between the defendant and the U.S. attorney,” said Paul J. Gains, Mahoning County prosecutor since 1997.
“The bill of information is where the defendant waives presentment to a grand jury and agrees to plead guilty to the charge,” he added.
The waiver of a grand-jury indictment, which Antonini signed April 13, is in her case file at the U.S. District Court, but no written plea agreement is shown in the file and no hearing has been scheduled.
“The tool that the government uses for cooperating witnesses or cooperating defendants many times is that they bypass the grand-jury stage, have the person waive their right to have a grand jury indict them and make an agreement to have an information filed,” said Atty. Joe Gardner of Canfield, who has defended clients charged with mail fraud, conspiracy and racketeering.
After an FBI probe, Antonini is charged with taking and failing to report a $3,000 cash contribution to her Democratic primary campaign for county treasurer on Jan. 16, 2008, from a local businessman while reporting only the $200 he gave by check. She mailed that information to the state’s ethics commission.
Board of elections records show a $200 gift to her campaign by check on that date from Anthony M. Cafaro Sr., who was then president of the Cafaro Co.
As is the case with most defendants who agree to be charged by an information, Gardner said he expects Antonini to plead guilty as charged. She’ll likely “get a break” in the U.S. attorney’s sentencing recommendation because it’s likely “she’s giving information to the government,” Gardner added.
Ultimately, her sentence will be up to a federal judge, who will have a set of guidelines to help in calculating the sentence, Gains said.
Under those guidelines, acceptance of responsibility for her actions through a guilty plea and cooperation with the government would work in Antonini’s favor, but her betrayal of the public trust as an elected officeholder would work against her, Gains added.
The judge will have wide latitude in sentencing Antonini, as the available sentencing range is from probation up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
Also pointing toward a guilty plea is Antonini’s own prepared statement accompanying her Monday resignation, in which she expressed remorse.
A spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office, however, declined to discuss details of the case, and neither Antonini, nor her lawyer, George G. Keith of Cuyahoga Falls, could be reached to comment Tuesday.
Antonini’s case was transferred from U.S. District Judge Donald C. Nugent to his colleague, Judge Sara Lioi, who handled the honest-services-mail-fraud cases against Maureen A. Cronin, a former Mahoning County Common Pleas Court judge, and Jim Tsagaris, a former Trumbull County commissioner.
The switch occurred after Justin J. Roberts, the assistant U.S. attorney prosecuting the Antonini case, filed a notice saying her case is related to those of Cronin and Tsagaris, and that all three cases stemmed from the same investigation.
Cronin drew a 27-month prison term for taking and concealing 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 will be locked up until next March 8.
Tsagaris took and failed to disclose a $36,551 loan that he never repaid from an unidentified local businessman in late 2004 while he was a commissioner, and then voted on matters that benefited that businessman.
In December 2009, Tsagaris drew a nine-month prison term after violating terms of his house arrest.
In the wake of Antonini’s resignation, Dan Yemma, chief deputy treasurer, said he is in charge of the office “by default.”
Mahoning County Commissioner Carol Rimedio-Righetti said the commissioners likely will name an interim treasurer to serve until the county’s Democratic Party Central Committee meets June 6 to select a replacement to complete Antonini’s unexpired term, which ends in 2012.
Righetti said her preference would be to name Yemma as interim treasurer until June 6.
The application deadline is May 31, said Atty. David Betras, party chairman.
“I was very shocked at the charge” against Antonini, Righetti said.
Noralynn Palermo, county recorder, whose office works closely with the treasurer’s office, had a similar reaction. “Her office is well-run. It surprised me,” Palermo said of Antonini.
Palermo also said the abruptness of Antonini’s departure surprised her, but she offered possible explanations.
“I think that she was probably just embarrassed. ... She knew she was going. Just get it over with,” Palermo said. “I think she’s truly sorry.”
Another possible explanation is that it would have been difficult for Antonini to be bonded to handle and manage millions of dollars in county tax collections and investments while facing a federal charge, Palermo added.