Grand jury indicts former client in Betras threats

CLEVELAND

A federal grand jury indicted Charles J. Reighard on charges of mailing extortion letters to Atty. David Betras and threatening to damage or destroy Betras’ Canfield law office with an explosive.

The first count of Tuesday’s indictment alleges Reighard, a former Betras client, sent letters to Betras between Sept. 4 and Oct. 17 with intent to extort money from him, which threatened to injure Betras and his family, the U.S. attorney announced. One of the letters demanded $4 million, the FBI said.

The second count of the indictment says that, on Oct. 16, Reighard falsely implied an explosive would damage or destroy Betras’ office.

On that day, an employee of Betras, Kopp & Harshman LLC, 6630 Seville Drive, arrived to find a second-floor window of the law office broken and a device beneath it, which bomb-squad technicians determined was a complete pipe bomb, except for the explosive powder.

In addition to being a lawyer, Betras also is Mahoning County Democratic Party chairman.

Read more about the case in Thursday's Vindicator or on Vindy.com.