Yavorcik attorney: Oakhill prosecutors violated law

CLEVELAND

The attorney for Martin Yavorcik, one of the three defendants in the Oakhill Renaissance Place criminal conspiracy case, filed a court document contending prosecutors didn’t follow state law when charging his client with 17 felony counts of tampering with records.

The court filing from Mark Lavelle, Yavorcik’s attorney, was in response to the prosecutors’ legal brief disputing a previous motion from Lavelle asking that the indictment against his client be dismissed using the same argument of not following the law.

In Wednesday’s filing, which appeared on the Cuyahoga County Clerk of Court’s website Thursday, Lavelle repeated his contention that the Ohio Elections Commission has “exclusive initial jurisdiction of alleged election law violations.”

In the prosecutors’ response, they wrote that Lavelle’s argument is factually wrong and included an affidavit from Philip C. Richter, OEC’s executive director and staff attorney, that states prosecutors weren’t required to present any of the allegations against Yavorcik to his commission.

Read Lavelle's response and more about the case in Friday's Vindicator or on Vindy.com.