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BCI agents took 676 computer disks with emails as part of probe
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 the county’s computer-network facility at Oakhill, according to three search warrants.
The agents spent about 81/2 hours Monday, until about 11:30 p.m., retrieving the evidence, said Dan Tierney, spokesman for Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine.
Sciortino, Youngstown Mayor John A. McNally and attorney Martin Yavorcik face a total of 83 criminal counts in the political-corruption indictment.
The charges include engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity, conspiracy, perjury, bribery, money laundering and tampering with records.
The three 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 Monday.
“We’ve been cooperating with BCI and the attorney general since May,” when the three were indicted, Sciortino said.
“We have absolutely nothing to hide. There was a pretrial last week and not once did they ask about my laptops. Then they show up with search warrants. I don’t understand the blindside they feel they have to do.”
There are two versions of what happened at Sciortino’s house.
Sciortino said BCI agents asked about them, and, through his attorney John Juhasz, he said they were at his house. Agents said they’d get a search warrant, but Sciortino said there was no need as he would provide the computers to them. He said he met them at his home and gave the items to them in his driveway without incident.
Tierney said the computers were at Sciortino’s house, so that became part of the search warrant “because of the circumstances involved.” Sciortino “gave them to us after some back and forth” about agents going into his home to retrieve them, Tierney said.
The search warrants sought emails to and from Sciortino, McNally, ex-county Probate Court Judge Mark Belinky, former county Treasurers John Reardon and Lisa Antonini, current county Commissioner Carol Rimedio-Righetti and Carol McFall, the auditor’s chief deputy.
All the current and former elected officials are Democrats.
The search warrants and an inventory receipt of the computer disks were available Tuesday at Youngstown Municipal Court. The affidavit providing context of why the items were taken is under seal and not available to the public.
Belinky pleaded guilty in May to a count of tampering with records while Antonini, also a former county Democratic chairwoman, pleaded guilty in May 2011 to honest services mail fraud. Both resigned and are cooperating with law enforcement investigating corruption in the county.
Reardon was indicted in the first Oakhill case, dismissed in July 2011 with prosecutors reserving the right to indict again. He was found guilty in January 2013 of two misdemeanor counts of election falsification. He is likely “John Doe 2” in the May 14 indictment, and is believed to be cooperating with law enforcement.
McFall and Rimedio-Righetti said they have never been contacted by law enforcement about anything related to Oakhill, and both said they were surprised to learn their names are on the search warrants.
“I guess because I’m Mike’s chief deputy, but I’ve never been included in any of that [Oakhill] stuff,” McFall said.
Rimedio-Righetti said, “I have no idea what this is all about. Honestly, I do not. What would I have to do with Oakhill? Why would I be in the mix?”
Sciortino said the indictment is politically motivated by DeWine, a Republican who is seeking re-election as attorney general against Democrat David Pepper.
Sciortino also is up for re-election this fall, facing the challenge of Republican Ralph Meacham.
“I strongly believe that I didn’t do anything wrong, and I intend to, if it goes to trial, try and prove that,” Sciortino said.
“A large part of this I still believe is very political. I think the timing is suspect.”
DeWine said, “The last thing on my mind when we pursued this case is politics,” and “any assertion we did it for political reasons” comes from someone “who doesn’t understand politics.”
DeWine said he takes “no joy” in prosecuting public- corruption cases, but as attorney general, he has “an obligation to seek justice and the truth.”
He also said defendants in cases such as this have “every right to say what they want about this case and about me,” and he doesn’t mind because he has a “thick skin.”