Belinky spit hook on a slew of serious criminal charges

Mark Belinky, disgraced former Mahoning County Probate Court judge, cut a deal last year to plead guilty to tampering with records, but how sweet the deal was didn’t become public until two days ago.

Affidavits in the Oakhill Renaissance Place criminal-corruption case were recently unsealed and paint an ugly – but accurate – picture of Belinky.

Though Belinky, a Democrat, had no direct ties to the Oakhill case, his inclusion in the affidavits raises questions about what he knows that will help prosecutors build their case against the three defendants in that matter, other local political officials and attorneys.

Affidavits from Ed Carlini, a special agent with the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation, state Belinky did much more than falsify his 2008 campaign- finance records by not reporting debt and hiding the sources of loans and contributions.

Carlini’s affidavits state Belinky “admitted to stealing money from people that he was a guardian over and further has admitted to altering probate court documents to further such theft and has further admitted to using a Mahoning County probate computer to create false probate court records.”

He also admitted to using county employees, county property and the county’s computer network for political purposes, according to the affidavits.

It was by pure chance that whoever was supposed to request those records, filed in September 2014, remain sealed failed to do so and that I found out about it. If that didn’t occur, it’s likely the public would have never known about Belinky’s behavior while on the bench.

Carlini wrote nearly a year ago that the state auditor was conducting a special audit of the probate court “to determine the breadth of Mark Belinky’s thievery.”

I’m sure the breadth is tremendous as Belinky was broke and apparently desperate enough to commit some heinous acts.

While I doubt it will be made public, investigators – specifically federal ones – owe this community an explanation as to how long Belinky did this and if they allowed Belinky to continue to steal from vulnerable people in their troubling times as they built a criminal case.

During Belinky’s July 9, 2014, sentencing, Dan Kasaris, a senior assistant attorney general who prosecuted that case and the other local political corruption cases, said the ex-judge was being “very cooperative” with state investigative agencies and the FBI.

“We need people to cooperate and assist when battling public corruption,” Kasaris added.

I’m sure Belinky has been helpful, and Kasaris was only the messenger when making those statements.

But it just doesn’t seem right that Belinky would get 60 days of house arrest, 200 hours of community service and a $2,500 fine when you look at all of his criminal acts listed on the affidavits.

The Belinky revelations, reported in Thursday’s Vindicator, are a reminder of how widespread political corruption is in the Mahoning Valley.

On top of that, Ronald V. Gerberry, a Democrat, will resign as an Ohio House member and plead guilty to unlawful compensation today.

Gerberry purportedly overpaid vendors to make it look like he spent money and then had much of it returned to him as a refund, sources have told me.

Gerberry, the most senior member of the Ohio House, did this with several vendors to make it appear he didn’t have much cash in his campaign fund, those sources say. That allowed Gerberry to pay less money to the Ohio House Democratic Caucus.

Gerberry is being allowed to plead guilty to a misdemeanor, resign and be placed on probation in exchange for his cooperation.

Gerberry is expected to be a key witness in the Oakhill case. Other elected officials – including former county Treasurers Lisa Antonini and John Reardon – have also cut deals and have agreed to cooperate.

In the Oakhill case, prosecutors accuse Youngstown Mayor John A. McNally, a Democrat in his prior position of Mahoning County commissioner; ex-county Auditor Michael V. Sciortino, a Democrat who lost re-election last year; and Martin Yavorcik, a failed 2008 independent candidate for county prosecutor, with being part of a criminal enterprise to stop the relocation of a county agency from a rundown location owned by a subsidiary of the powerful Cafaro Co. That supposedly happened when Anthony Cafaro Sr. was the president of his family-owned company. While Cafaro hasn’t been charged, several court documents in the case allege Cafaro committed a variety of criminal offenses.