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Oakhill defendant wants to share evidence; AG objects, cites threats
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Yavorcik
CLEVELAND
The attorney for Martin Yavorcik, one of the three defendants in the Oakhill Renaissance criminal corruption case, filed a motion asking a judge to permit him to share all evidence turned over by prosecutors with whomever he wants.
But the Ohio Attorney General’s Office, which is prosecuting this case along with the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor’s Office, is objecting because “threats have been made to at least one witness in this case,” said Dan Tierney, an AG spokesman.
“Disclosure of that information would compromise the safety of those witnesses,” he said.
Some evidence given by prosecutors to the defendants is marked for “counsel only,” meaning it can’t be shared with anyone besides the defendants and their attorneys. Sharing that information without the court’s consent could put defendants or their attorneys in contempt of court.
Mark Lavelle, Yavorcik’s attorney, filed the motion Thursday asking Judge Janet R. Burnside of Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court, who is overseeing the case, to review the prosecutor’s “decision of nondisclosure or designation of ‘counsel only’ material for abuse of discretion.”
In the filing, Lavelle wrote that Yavorcik and the two other defendants — Youngstown Mayor John A. McNally and Mahoning County Auditor Michael V. Sciortino — are charged with “so-called ‘white collar’ violations such as money laundering, tampering with records and bribery. There are no allegations in the discovery provided to date or the bill of particulars provided by the state of threats, either physical or economic, of anyone whatsoever.”
Tierney said that isn’t the case.
“We made [the decision] for very serious reasons,” he said. “We felt the safety of the witnesses would be compromised” if some of the evidence not permitted to be shared was given to others.
Tierney declined to comment on the nature of the threats to the witness and that person’s identity.
Tierney also wouldn’t discuss the specific evidence that was marked for “counsel only.” But based on his comments about at least one witness being threatened as well as court documents filed by prosecutors, the secret tape recordings made by unidentified confidential informants and transcripts of those tapings likely would fall under that “counsel only” designation.
Yavorcik, a failed 2008 independent candidate for Mahoning County prosecutor, along with Sciortino and McNally, in the latter’s previous elected position of county commissioner, are facing 83 criminal counts accusing them of being involved in a conspiracy. Sciortino and McNally are Democrats.
The conspiracy accuses the three — and numerous others who haven’t been charged — of illegally trying to impede or stop the move of the Mahoning County Department of Job and Family Services from the Cafaro Co.-owned Garland Plaza to Oakhill, the former Forum Health Southside Medical Center.
The three have pleaded not guilty to the charges.