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State is investigating allegations Ohio Sen. Capri Cafaro’s district director stole money
WARREN
The Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation is investigating allegations that state Sen. Capri Cafaro’s district director stole money from a personal account the legislator set up to pay for the operations of the Warren office.
Police reports obtained Wednesday by The Vindicator from Cortland, Howland and Vienna show that Jonathan Wike Jr. of Niles is suspected of cashing at least seven bad checks, totaling $4,316, at Seven Seventeen Credit Union branches in those three communities in late June.
There even could be more checks, according to what a Seven Seventeen official told Vienna police.
Because it’s an ongoing investigation, Cafaro of Liberty, D-32nd, said she is limited in what she can say.
Cafaro confirmed she fired Wike on July 8. She said she hired Wike in 2008 to be her district director, operating out of a ninth-floor office at 108 Main Ave. NW, the Huntington Bank building. Cafaro said that office will remain open, but unstaffed, with calls returned by her Columbus office.
Cafaro will meet constituents at the downtown Warren office by appointment.
Wike, who first met Cafaro in 2004 during her unsuccessful congressional bid, was making about $35,000 a year.
Cafaro, who makes $60,584 as a state senator, said she paid Wike’s salary and the expenses to operate the district office out of an account she opened with her own money. The state doesn’t provide any money for district operations, and none of the missing money came from public funds, she said.
“I’ve known him for 11 years; there’s a lot of emotions involved with this,” Cafaro said of Wike. “I’m more sad than anything else.”
Attempts Wednesday by The Vindicator to reach Wike were unsuccessful.
The BCI was asked by the Cortland, Howland and Vienna police departments to investigate the missing money, said Jill Del Greco, a BCI spokeswoman.
When the BCI investigation is finished, Del Greco said the agency will give its findings and other information on the investigation to the Trumbull County Prosecutor’s Office. It would be up to that office to determine if charges are to be filed, she said.