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Oakhill criminal-corruption case taking interesting twists, turns as parties gear up for March trial
On the side
Wednesday is the filing deadline for nonpartisan candidates running in nonpartisan races during the Nov. 3 general election.
These are races for township trustee and fiscal officer, school board seats and for mayors and council members in certain villages.
When the list is published by The Vindicator and you don’t see candidates for cities – including Youngstown, Struthers, Campbell, Warren, Girard and Niles – don’t go crazy. Those candidates already filed, some of them several months ago for the May primary.
Wednesday is also the deadline to file for tax issues, and there are going to be a lot of them on the November general election ballot.
During Gov. John Kasich’s visit to the opening of the Ohio State Fair in Columbus, the Republican presidential candidate was asked about Thursday’s debate in Cleveland.
Marc Kovac, our Columbus correspondent, reports Kasich said he didn’t think it would be a “raucous back-and-forth debate. However it works, there will be a lot of people on the stage, and I don’t think it’s going to be probably what people are anticipating. There’s going to be so many people there with limited time.”
There were a couple of interesting developments recently in the Oakhill Renaissance Place criminal-corruption case – one that made it to the Ohio Supreme Court and another that will result in the first public hearing on this matter.
Regarding the latter, defense attorneys for two of the three defendants – Youngstown Mayor John A. McNally and ex-Mahoning County Auditor Michael V. Sciortino, both Democrats – have repeatedly banged the drum that prosecutors are withholding about 1,300 hours of secretly recorded tapes made by confidential informants for federal agents.
One fascinating fact is prosecutors have said they don’t have any tapes of McNally. The tapes are of and about Sciortino and the other case’s defendant, attorney Martin Yavorcik, an unsuccessful 2008 independent candidate for county auditor.
The original Oakhill case was dismissed in July 2011 because the FBI refused to turn over “approximately 2,000 hours of tape recordings” to prosecutors related to at least one of the defendants. Unable to share that evidence with defense attorneys, prosecutors had no choice but to seek the dismissal.
The bureau apparently had a change of heart and turned over the tapes to the Ohio Attorney General’s Office and Cuyahoga County Prosecutor’s Office, which indicted the three May 14, 2014.
McNally, Sciortino and Yavorcik face 83 total criminal counts including engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity, bribery, conspiracy, perjury and money laundering. The three have pleaded not guilty.
Prosecutors contend the three were part of a criminal enterprise to impede or stop the move of a county department from Garland Plaza, owned by a Cafaro Co. subsidiary, to a building purchased by the county.
Prosecutors say the amount of actual tapes totals 700 hours and the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s estimate of 2,000 hours was “off the cuff.” Defense attorneys are skeptical of claims by the government of a “wildly inaccurate estimate.”
The defense is pressing the issue and will get a court hearing Sept. 21 to address it. An FBI agent and others with knowledge of the tapes will testify that all of the audio evidence has been provided, and defense attorneys will get to question them.
The other matter in the Oak-hill case was done in secret and would have been under the radar if an Ohio Supreme Court decision in what it called the “grand jury proceeding of John Doe” wasn’t given a second look.
The court sends emails to journalists who request them about decisions it makes. If I recognize the name, I look further. I’m not familiar with John Doe, but after opening that case’s docket I recognized a couple of names – Anthony Cafaro Sr. and Ohio Valley Mall Co., the Cafaro Co. subsidiary that owned and operated Garland Plaza.
While all of the entries were sealed, information on the court’s website show that a temporary stay to Cafaro and the company was granted.
While I can’t say with certainty what is being shielded, an educated guess would be notes Cafaro took during meetings with McNally, Sciortino and others regarding Oakhill. Some notes have been turned over to the grand jury and will be used as key pieces of evidence in the trial.
Either the Ohio Supreme Court or the Cleveland-based 8th District Court of Appeals, which ruled against Cafaro, will have to address the temporary aspect of the stay at some point.
Even more mysterious is the high court’s 6-1 decision Thursday to grant an emergency stay on another 8th District Court of Appeals decision related to Oakhill.
That case involves attorneys with and partners of Ulmer & Berne, a Cleveland law firm hired by Cafaro and mentioned in the Oakhill case’s bill of particulars.
The Cafaro Co. paid $876,140 to Ulmer & Berne with most of the services performed for McNally, Sciortino and/or ex- Mahoning County Treasurer John Reardon, according to a notice of intent to use evidence filed by prosecutors. Reardon was indicted in the original Oakhill case. He is cooperating with prosecutors in this case.