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Filing: Sciortino had staffer help Yavorcik’s run for prosecutor
YOUNGSTOWN
Prosecutors in the Oakhill Renaissance Place criminal-corruption case contend then-Mahoning County Auditor Michael V. Sciortino had an employee work on the failed 2008 county prosecutor campaign of Martin Yavorcik to make an investigation into his and others’ purported criminal conduct “go away” if Yavorcik won.
That is among new accusations made against two of the three Oakhill defendants in an amended bill of particulars, and the state’s second notice of intent-to-use evidence filed Monday.
The amended bill of particulars, a document that provides more-detailed information about the charges, states: “It has been learned that Sciortino solicited at least one person who was an employee in his office to help Martin Yavorcik’s 2008 campaign because Yavorcik has promised Sciortino that once elected prosecutor” he would stop an investigation into the auditor, Youngstown Mayor John A. McNally – an Oakhill case defendant – and others.
“At Sciortino’s request and for his benefit, such person assisted the Yavorcik 2008 campaign for Mahoning County prosecutor,” the amended bill reads.
It didn’t help as incumbent Paul J. Gains, a Democrat, beat Yavorcik, who ran as an independent, by 38 percentage points.
The new notice of intent-to-use evidence states an unnamed former county auditor employee recently provided a statement to law enforcement, presumably about Sciortino’s supposedly having that person work for Yavorcik’s campaign.
Prosecutors accuse McNally and Sciortino, both Democrats, along with Yavorcik of being part of a criminal enterprise that illegally, and unsuccessfully, tried to impede or stop the move of the county Department of Job and Family Services from the Cafaro Co.-owned Garland Plaza to Oakhill Renaissance Place, the former Forum Health Southside Medical Center owned by the county.
The three face 83 total criminal counts in that case including engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity, bribery, conspiracy, perjury and money laundering. They have pleaded not guilty.
The notice of intent states prosecutors will use information obtained during two interviews Yavorcik had with FBI agents.
In a March 3, 2010, interview, Yavorcik admitted a lot was on the line for Sciortino, McNally and others, including unindicted members of the criminal enterprise, in the 2008 election he lost, according to the notice.
In a Feb. 8, 2011, interview with FBI agents, Yavorcik discussed who could see Anthony Cafaro Sr., who retired in 2009 as head of the Cafaro Co., to obtain campaign funds, and made “statements about quashing the ‘Oakhill’ investigation after [he was] elected county prosecutor in 2008,” according to the notice.
New evidence also includes a secretly recorded April 2, 2008, conversation in which “Yavorcik acknowledges that if the investigation goes too far, it will be crushing [to those being investigated],” according to the notice. Also, prosecutors contend they have an Oct. 8, 2008, recorded conversation in which Yavorcik discusses the need for him to win or else there will be indictments.
The notice states prosecutors plan to use information it obtained from numerous computers and software it took, with a search warrant, from various auditor office locations and Sciortino’s Austintown home Sept. 22, 2014.
Among the items are:
An undated email from Carol McFall, then-county deputy auditor, to Sciortino called “FBI.”
A PDF created April 10, 2014, that contains a number of emails on 28 pages dated Aug. 3, 2006, from “employees/agents of the Cafaro Co. to Michael Sciortino, some of which contained emails blind copied to Anthony Cafaro” Sr.
Judge Janet R. Burnside of Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court, who is overseeing the Oakhill case, had given prosecutors until Monday to provide the two documents.
Among her requirements was that prosecutors needed to show how Yavorcik could be charged with tampering with records for campaign-finance reports instead of his campaign treasurer, Eugene Yavorcik, his father.
Prosecutors wrote that Martin Yavorcik “filled out all of the campaign-finance reports in his own handwriting and signed his treasurer’s name with the treasurer’s consent.”
Also, they wrote the failed candidate “prepared all of the campaign-finance records” himself, and the documents “contain false data.”
The judge also required prosecutors to detail where each of the alleged criminal counts occurred as defense attorneys have argued that Cuyahoga County isn’t the correct venue for this case.
The alleged crimes occurred in Cuyahoga, Mahoning, Franklin and Geauga counties, and each is identified in the 83 counts. Overall, 35 of the counts occurred entirely or in part in Cuyahoga County, the bill of particulars reads.
“The trial of a criminal case in Ohio shall be held in the territory of which the offense or any element of the offense was committed,” the bill reads. “When an offender commits conspiracy, the offender may be tried in any jurisdiction in which the conspiracy or any of its elements occurred.”