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State Rep. Ron Gerberry to plead guilty to misdemeanor
YOUNGSTOWN
State Rep. Ronald V. Gerberry, the most-senior Democrat in the Ohio House, will plead guilty to a misdemeanor related to campaign-finance irregularities in a bill of information and resign, likely this week, according to three sources close to the investigation.
Gerberry, of Austintown, D-59th, is cooperating with prosecutors, striking a deal to plead guilty, step down immediately and agree not to run for elected office for the next seven years, two of the sources said. The crime is unlawful compensation, one source said.
A bill of information is when a defendant waives presentment of criminal charges to a grand jury and agrees to plead guilty.
The charge stems from Gerberry’s purportedly overpaying vendors to make it look like he spent money and then having much of it returned to him as a refund, the three sources said.
Gerberry, a 27-year House member, did this with several vendors, one source said.
By appearing not to have much cash in his campaign fund, the sources said, Gerberry, 62, would pay less money to the Ohio House Democratic Caucus. A Vindicator review of Gerberry’s online campaign-finance reports, which date back to 2009, shows that he received refunds from the Jericho Group of $9,000 on Sept. 12, 2012, and $8,000 on Sept. 17, 2012, and made a $6,480 payment to the company Sept. 18, 2012, and a $3,500 payment to Jericho on Oct. 25, 2012. Gerberry then received a $9,346 refund from Jericho on Dec. 3, 2012.
There also are refunds of $6,000 on Dec. 18, 2002 (but recorded on a 2009 report), and $5,600 on Nov. 9, 2009. There’s a $8,396 refund from Forte Media/Jericho Group on Oct. 6, 2010.
Reports show Gerberry’s campaign giving Jericho $17,500 on Oct. 4, 2010, and an additional $6,000 two weeks later.
Both Youngstown political consulting firms are owned by Harry Strabala of Youngstown.
Attempts Monday by The Vindicator to contact Gerberry and Strabala for comment were unsuccessful.
The caucus solicits donations from its members with amounts determined by how much money they raise, if they are prolific fundraisers, and how likely they are to be re-elected. A caucus spokesman couldn’t say Monday if there’s a specific formula for how much Democratic House members pay.
The amounts Gerberry gave the caucus annually were wildly inconsistent.
In 2009, he gave $26,000, followed by $104,000 in 2010. It then dropped to $1,000 in 2011, $6,000 in 2012, $1,000 in 2013, $6,750 in 2014, and $1,500 during the first six months of this year, according to his campaign-finance reports.
Mahoning County Prosecutor Paul J. Gains, whose office is handling the Gerberry case, declined to comment Monday. County Democratic Party Chairman David Betras said he didn’t know anything about the matter.
Gerberry is named in documents regarding the Oakhill Renaissance Place criminal-corruption case, though he hasn’t been charged in connection with that investigation.
A Cuyahoga County indictment accuses Youngstown Mayor John A. McNally, ex-county Auditor Michael V. Sciortino – both Democrats – and Martin Yavorcik, a failed 2008 independent county prosecutor candidate, with conspiring with others to illegally impede or stop the move of the county Department of Job and Family Services from the Cafaro Co.-owned Garland Plaza to Oakhill, the former Forum Health Southside Medical Center.
The three face a total of 83 criminal counts including engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity, conspiracy, bribery, perjury, money laundering and tampering with evidence. The three have pleaded not guilty.
A “notice of intent to use evidence,” filed Jan. 8 in the Oakhill case by prosecutors, lists among its evidence the campaign-finance reports of Gerberry for 2008 to 2010 as well as a spreadsheet of his campaign contributions and expenditures for those three years compiled by an FBI agent.
At the time, Gerberry told The Vindicator that he’s “talked to the FBI. I’ve had conversations with them – and I’ll leave it at that.”
When asked if he did anything illegal, Gerberry said, “Not that I’m aware of.”
Gerberry also is on secretly recorded tapes by a confidential witness in the Oakhill case that the FBI turned over last year to prosecutors.
Gerberry mentioned the supposed scheme with the political consultant on those tapes, according to one source.
Gerberry has spent essentially all of his adult life in elected office. He was first elected to the Austintown school board in 1973 at age 19, and served there until his selection by the Ohio House Democratic Caucus, based on the recommendation of the Mahoning County Democratic Party, to fill an unexpired state representative term Feb. 16, 1982. He was elected to nine two-year terms in the House, and couldn’t run in 2000 because of the state’s law on term limits.
Gerberry was elected Mahoning County recorder in 2000, serving until May 15, 2007. He again was selected by the caucus to fill an unexpired House term and re-elected to four two-year terms.
Gerberry, who’s never lost an election, would be prohibited from running for the Ohio House next year because of the state’s term-limits law.
The House caucus would choose Gerberry’s replacement based on the recommendation of the county Democratic party.