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A visiting judge will be selected to oversee the criminal case of the former Mahoning County auditor
YOUNGSTOWN
Judge Shirley J. Christian of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court recused herself from hearing the criminal case of ex-county Auditor Michael V. Sciortino, who faces 25 felony counts of illegally using government-owned computers and software.
In a one-line journal entry, the judge wrote: “The court hereby recuses itself from further proceedings in this case and requests reassignment.”
Attempts by The Vindicator to reach Judge Christian, Sciortino and John B. Juhasz, the defendant’s attorney, were unsuccessful.
None of the county’s judges will hear Sciortino’s case.
“A letter will be going to the [Ohio] Supreme Court requesting a visiting judge be assigned to that case,” said Robert Regula, court administrator.
Sciortino, an Austintown Democrat who served as county auditor from Sept. 14, 2005, to Feb. 23, 2015, was indicted June 4 on 21 felony counts of unauthorized use of property – computer or telecommunication property – and four felony counts of theft in office. He has pleaded not guilty.
Prosecutors say Sciortino and three auditor employees at his direction illegally used the county’s computers and software more than 300 times to raise money for political purposes to keep him in office and for his private law practice.
Using government property for business is never permitted under state law, Paul M. Nick, executive director for the Ohio Ethics Commission, has said.
Sciortino’s criminal conduct is alleged to have started Oct. 6, 2005, and ended Aug. 29, 2012.
Meanwhile, court records show that Judge Maureen Sweeney, who arraigned Sciortino on June 16, signed a form that day that reads: “Upon inquiry by the court, the defendant is found to be indigent” and that Juhasz, Sciortino’s attorney, was being retained.
However, the Ohio Attorney General’s Office, the lead prosecutor on the case, says that’s likely a mistake.
“We were unaware of any such request because Sciortino made an appearance with retained counsel,” said Dan Tierney, an AG spokesman. “We believe it’s probably an error. Once we get a visiting judge assigned, we’ll ask to correct that. Normally, a prosecutor is asked about a defendant being indigent, and we weren’t.”
Judge Sweeney couldn’t be reached by The Vindicator to comment.
Sciortino made $89,109 a year as county auditor. He also had a law practice and worked as a singer and DJ. He and his wife have an Austintown home valued at $137,270, according to the county auditor’s website.
In addition to this case, Sciortino is a co-defendant in a case in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court charging him with being part of a criminal enterprise to illegally, and unsuccessfully, impede or stop the move of the Mahoning County Department of Job and Family Services from the Cafaro Co.-owned Garland Plaza to the county-owned Oakhill Renaissance Place.
Others facing criminal charges in that case are Youngstown Mayor John A. McNally, a Democrat in his former capacity as a county commissioner, and attorney Martin Yavorcik, an unsuccessful 2008 independent county prosecutor candidate.
The three face a total of 83 criminal counts including engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity, bribery, money laundering, conspiracy and tampering with records. They’ve pleaded not guilty.
A recent court filing in the Cuyahoga County case sheds light on what law-enforcement agencies initially investigated starting in 2007.
Attached to a court notice about appointing Ohio attorney general officials as prosecutors last year on this case was information on the investigation.
It lists numerous law-enforcement agencies “investigating organized crime and public corruption involving several Mahoning County elected or appointed officials and employees, namely: Anthony Cafaro; relatives of Anthony Cafaro; Marty Yavorcik; Michael Morley; John Reardon; and other past or present public employees or officials of Mahoning County and/or the city of Youngstown, and the Cleveland law firm of [the name is blacked out] as well as other law firms; and others for bribery, engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity, perjury, tampering with records, tampering with evidence, case fixing, and various other crimes.”
The Cleveland law firm of Ulmer & Berne was the only law firm listed in the notice.
Anthony Cafaro Sr., a retired real-estate business owner, is an alleged unindicted member of the criminal enterprise, according to prosecutor court documents.
John Reardon, a former county treasurer, and Morley, an ex-county Democratic Party chairman, also are alleged unindicted members of the criminal enterprise.
Reardon was convicted in January 2013 of two misdemeanor counts of election falsification and is cooperating with law enforcement.
In court documents, Morley is accused of providing assistance to Lisa Antonini, a former county Democratic chairwoman and county treasurer, when she concealed a $3,000 cash payment from Cafaro in March 2008 and didn’t include it on a campaign-finance report. Morley said in January that he was “confident that I will not be charged with any wrongdoing,” and is “willing to provide any assistance” to investigators.
Cafaro and Reardon were indicted in the first Oakhill case, dismissed in July 2011 with prosecutors reserving the right to indict again.
Court documents allege the Cafaro Co. paid $876,140 to Ulmer & Berne with most of the money for services provided for McNally, Sciortino and/or Reardon.