Judge orders Yavorcik to court

By David Skolnick | October 16, 2014 at 12:02a.m.

CLEVELAND

The judge overseeing the Oakhill Renaissance Place criminal conspiracy case is ordering Martin Yavorcik, one of the three defendants, to court to consider motions from his attorneys to no longer represent him.

Judge Janet R. Burnside of Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court scheduled the hearing for 1 p.m. Monday. She also ordered Jennifer J. Scott and William L. Summers, who represent Yavorcik, and prosecutors in this case to attend the hearing.

Yavorcik’s attorneys wrote in motions filed Sept. 26 with the court that they want to withdraw as his legal counsel and their client plans to represent himself. Yavorcik is an attorney.

Along with Youngstown Mayor John A. McNally and Mahoning County Auditor Michael V. Sciortino, Yavorcik was indicted May 14 on 83 criminal counts, including engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity, bribery, conspiracy, money laundering and tampering with records.

All three defendants pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Yavorcik, McNally and Sciortino are accused of being involved in a conspiracy to impede the move of the Mahoning County Department of Job and Family Services from the then-Cafaro-Co.-owned Garland Plaza on Youngstown’s East Side to Oakhill Renaissance Place, the former Forum Health Southside Medical Center.

The three are among 23 people involved in a purported criminal enterprise that traded money and other financial benefits for political favors, lied under oath to protect business interests and had an agreement to fix legal cases, according to the indictment.

Yavorcik is accused of accepting money from an unnamed businessman — who is likely Anthony M. Cafaro Sr., former head of the Cafaro Co. retail development business — and others in exchange for agreeing to not investigate or prosecute members of the enterprise if he were elected Mahoning County prosecutor in 2008.

Yavorcik, who ran as an independent, lost that election to incumbent Democrat Paul J. Gains.

McNally — a Democrat, as is Sciortino — is accused of criminal acts in his former capacity as a county commissioner.