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200 notes by Cafaro pile up as evidence
YOUNGSTOWN
More than 200 handwritten notes by Anthony Cafaro Sr. about meetings and telephone conversations the businessman had with Mahoning County officials in an effort to stop the purchase of Oakhill Renaissance Place are among the evidence prosecutors may use in a criminal conspiracy case.
A 100-page “notice of intent to use evidence” document, filed Thursday with the Cuyahoga County Common Pleas’ clerk of court office by prosecutors, outlines what they contend was coordinated corruption between Cafaro and certain officials.
Among the thousands of pieces of evidence prosecutors may use against two of three defendants in the Oakhill case — Youngstown Mayor John A. McNally, Mahoning County Auditor Michael V. Sciortino, both Democrats — are those notes of meetings Cafaro had with them.
Details of many of the meetings aren’t disclosed. Others are primarily about how to stop or impede the county from moving the Department of Job and Family Services from the Cafaro-Co.-owned Garland Plaza on the East Side to Oakhill Renaissance Place, the former Forum Health Southside Medical Center.
Among the documents is one given to Cafaro on July 12, 2006, by McNally with the “confidential terms” of the county’s purchase of Oakhill.
There are no Cafaro notes of any meetings or discussions with the case’s third defendant, Martin Yavorcik, a failed 2008 county prosecutor candidate who ran as an independent. Earlier filings by prosecutors, however, show the case against Yavorcik likely rests with secret tape recordings of him talking with confidential informants.
Cafaro, an alleged unindicted co-conspirator in the case previously identified as “Businessman 1,” took notes of meetings and phone conversations he had with not only McNally and Sciortino, but with John Zachariah, the former JFS director; Lisa Antonini, a former county Democratic Party chairwoman and county treasurer; and John Reardon, a former county treasurer. The notes indicate those talks were also about stopping the county from moving JFS from the Cafaro Co. property to Oakhill on the South Side.
Zacharaiah, Antonini and Reardon also are unindicted co-conspirators. Antonini and Reardon are cooperating with prosecutors.
The 100-page filing — by Daniel Kasaris, senior assistant Ohio attorney general and this case’s lead prosecutor, and Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Timothy J. McGinty — is the first time prosecutors mentioned Cafaro by name.
The word “Cafaro” is used nearly 500 times in the document with most references to Anthony Cafaro Sr., the former head of the Cafaro Co., his family owned real-estate development business.
“It’s just the same unsubstantiated accusations thrown out by the prosecutors,” said Joe Bell, a Cafaro Co. spokesman. “Tony Cafaro hasn’t been charged with a crime. It’s the same type of politically driven prosecution we’ve seen in the past.”
Cafaro gave the notes of the meetings and phone calls to prosecutors as they collected evidence.
Page 43 of the filing reads that the Cafaro documents provide “evidence of perjury, tampering with evidence, bribery, theft in office, telecommunications fraud and/or violations of Ohio’s ethics laws.”
The prosecutor filing states the Cafaro Co. spent $1.46 million between 2006 and 2008 in legal fees with a majority going to attorneys for McNally, Reardon and Sciortino.
McNally in his previous capacity as a county commissioner, Sciortino and Yavorcik were indicted in May 2014 on 83 criminal counts, including engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity, bribery, perjury, conspiracy, money laundering and tampering with records.
The three have pleaded not guilty to the charges.
The indictment accuses the three and numerous others of being involved in a criminal enterprise to stop the JFS relocation from Garland to Oakhill.
The indictment alleges that McNally and Sciortino received benefits for opposing the relocation, and Yavorcik accepted money in exchange for agreeing not to investigate or prosecute members of the enterprise if elected prosecutor.
The court filing includes handwritten notes by Cafaro of numerous meetings with Zachariah and McNally.
That includes one on Feb. 13, 2006, in which Cafaro wrote what the two “will do to enlist support not to move” from Garland Plaza; a July 13, 2006, meeting with Sciortino regarding the auditor’s refusal to sign a check to purchase Oakhill; another meeting on that same day with Sciortino and McNally in which it was discussed that the two officeholders would go to the Cleveland law firm of Taft Stettinius & Hollister, and that firm had been in contact with two attorneys at Ulmer & Berne, another Cleveland law firm “to work together.”
Also, there are notes by Cafaro of an Aug. 22, 2006, meeting or phone conversation he had with Zachariah with prosecutors writing, “No additional handwritten notes were produced even though they exist.”
There are notes from a March 30, 2007, meeting Cafaro had with Zachariah and three others, including Isaac Eddington, an attorney. Prosecutors also have notes written by Eddington from that meeting that reads: “The Cafaros are paying Zachariah’s attorney fees.” Prosecutors said that is contrary to what Cafaro testified to under oath at a deposition.
The document also questions Cafaro’s truthfulness under oath in other examples.
In the court filing, prosecutors list as evidence a “black binder Anthony Cafaro gave to a Mahoning County resident in an attempt to have that resident bring a taxpayer lawsuit against Mahoning County ... or to purchase a lien held by Chase Bank on Oakhill then to have the resident foreclose on Mahoning County ... or to initiate a petition drive against the Mahoning County commissioners’ purchase of 345 Oakhill.”
The filing said the resident may be called as a witness and is not being named.
Sam Moffie of Poland told The Vindicator in July 2012 that Cafaro asked him to file a taxpayer lawsuit against the county to stop the purchase of Oakhill and that Cafaro offered to pay his attorney fees. Moffie didn’t file the lawsuit.
When asked about it Friday, Moffie declined to comment.
The binder, in the prosecutors’ possession, includes numerous documents related to the purchase of the Oakhill property in bankruptcy court, the county’s credit rating, newspaper articles, letters between county officials, and proposed repair work to Garland.