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Law office bomb scare suspect indicted
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.
On Nov. 3, U.S. Magistrate George J. Limbert in Youngstown ordered that Reighard, 67, of state Route 7, Burghill, remain locked up without bond until his trial, saying he feared Reighard might eventually produce a functioning pipe bomb.
When Mahoning County deputy sheriffs executed a search warrant at Reighard’s home and arrested him Oct. 23, they said they found an unopened package of 3mm safety fuse, 10 feet in length, several pieces of galvanized metal pipe and a typed draft of a letter in a trash can with Betras’ and Reighard’s names on it.
Betras represented Reighard, who was charged in 1999 with vandalism over allegations he caused new cars to catch fire by deliberately driving a car into them at the General Motors Lordstown plant, where he was employed.
Betras negotiated a deal, in which Reighard pleaded guilty to telecommunications harassment and was put on five years’ probation.
Reighard claimed, however, that Betras, the prosecutor and the judge conspired to get him fired from GM and to “ruin his life,” according to an FBI agent’s affidavit.