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Former MYCAP director sentenced to three years’ probation.
YOUNGSTOWN
Richard A. Roller, the former director of the Mahoning-Youngstown Community Action Partnership who now is a convicted felon, won’t be going to jail.
Roller was sentenced to 120 days in Mahoning County jail, with the jail time stayed pending his appeal, on charges of theft in office and grand theft.
Roller also was sentenced to three years’ probation and ordered to pay $14,000 in restitution. He presented the restitution check to the court at his Friday sentencing in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court.
Roller, 51, of Colonial Drive, Liberty, drew the sentence from visiting Judge Paul Mitrovich.
A jury convicted Roller of the theft-in-office and grand-theft charges May 13, but it acquitted him of having an unlawful interest in a public contract.
Roller was placed on unpaid administrative leave in April 2010, and the MYCAP board fired him the following month in the wake of the Ohio Department of Development’s investigation into whether the nonprofit organization misappropriated funds and resources while he led it.
In the October 2012 indictment, Roller was charged with using his office to steal $7,500 or more from the state between June 19 and July 13, 2009.
The bill of particulars accused Roller of deceptively obtaining $14,000 in consulting fees and $3,400 in equipment rental fees from the state during that period.
Youngstown-based MYCAP administers programs that help poor and disadvantaged county residents.
Its programs range from the Home Weatherization Assistance Program to the Community Service Block Grant.
Roller, who has a master’s in business administration, directed the agency for about 10 years.
Micah R. Ault, the assistant Ohio attorney general who prosecuted the case, asked the judge to impose a prison term because: “Mr. Roller was in a position of trust when this crime was committed.”
Roller’s lawyer, John B. Juhasz, however, called for probation, saying Roller has no prior criminal record and also cited the Ohio Legislature’s preference for not imprisoning nonviolent offenders.
“There certainly is not a man here who has evil motives and intents,” Juhasz said of his client.
Saying Juhasz had spoken for him, Roller said he had nothing to add before the judge sentenced him.
“If you violate any of the terms of your probation, you are facing a prison sentence,” Judge Mitrovich warned Roller.