Threats made against confidential Oakhill witness

CLEVELAND

For the first time, prosecutors in the Oakhill Renaissance Place criminal corruption case provided details about threats made against a confidential witness in this matter.

In a court filing today, Christopher Schroeder, an assistant Cuyahoga County prosecutor, wrote that the witness was verbally threatened at the Southern Park Mall in Boardman on May 7, 2014, exactly a week before prosecutors indicted Youngstown Mayor John A. McNally in his capacity as a former Mahoning County commissioner, county Auditor Michael V. Sciortino and attorney Martin Yavorcik. The three face a combined 83 counts including engaging in a patter of corrupt activity, conspiracy, bribery, perjury, money laundering and tampering with evidence. They’ve pleaded innocent to the charges.

Included with today’s court filing is an investigative report of the witness by the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation.

The witness was walking at the mall when he was approached by a man he doesn’t know who brought up Anthony Cafaro Sr., the unindicted Businessman 1 in court documents, calling him a “good family man” and saying that the first Oakhill trial, dismissed in July 2011, “didn’t work out for some people.”

The man ended the conversation by saying, “The worst thing in the world is a snitch. I can stand almost anything in this world but a snitch,” according to the court filing.

The man is described as being white, heavy-set between 65 and 68 years old, about 5-feet, 11-inches tall with thinning dark hair.

The witness was relocated from the Youngstown area for several days, the filing states. Upon returning home after the indictment, the witness reported the discovery of a large plastic novelty rat between the storm and front doors of his residence.

The motion doesn’t accuse any of the defendants of being responsible for either incident.

For the complete story, read Wednesday’s Vindicator and Vindy.com