State agents take 676 computer disks in Oakhill case

YOUNGSTOWN — State law enforcement agents took 676 computer disks and computers that contain emails from current and former Mahoning County officials as part of the criminal investigation into the 2006 purchase by the county of Oakhill Renaissance Place.

With search warrants, Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation’s cyber-crime agents removed the items from the office of county Auditor Michael V. Sciortino at the county courthouse, the county’s information-technologies department — which Sciortino oversees — on the fourth floor of the administration building, and its computer-network facility at Oakhill, according to three search warrants.

The agents spent about eight-and-a-half hours retrieving the evidence, said Dan Tierney, spokesman for Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine.

Sciortino along with Youngstown Mayor John A. McNally, both Democrats, and attorney Martin Yavorcik, an independent, face a total of 83 criminal counts in an indictment.

They are accused of political corruption contending they illegally conspired among themselves and with others to try to impede the 2006 move of the county’s Department of Job and Family Services to Oakhill from Garland Plaza, owned by the Cafaro Co. McNally was a county commissioner at the time.

Agents also seized two county-owned laptops and a computer hard drive from Sciortino’s Austintown home.

For the complete story, read Wednesday’s Vindicator and Vindy.com