Sciortino hit with 25 new felonies unrelated to Oakhill

YOUNGSTOWN

Just three weeks after becoming Mahoning County auditor, Michael V. Sciortino started illegally using government-owned computers and software for his political campaigns and for his private law practice, according to an indictment charging him with 25 felonies.

A Mahoning County grand jury on Thursday indicted Sciortino, 44, a Democrat from Austintown, with 21 counts of unauthorized use of property – computer or telecommunications – and four counts of theft in office.

This indictment is on top of the 22 criminal counts Sciortino faces in a separate matter for his purported involvement in the Oakhill Renaissance Place criminal-corruption case.

Sciortino will be summoned to court for an arraignment on the new charges, but no date for his initial court appearance is scheduled, said Dan Tierney, spokesman for the Ohio Attorney General’s Office.

Sciortino’s criminal conduct is alleged to have started Oct. 6, 2005, and ended Aug. 29, 2012.

Investigators became suspicious of Scortino’s computer use when, during the execution of a search warrant in Sept. 22, 2014, he said he wanted to keep a public computer overnight at his home and bring it to law enforcement the next day, according to the Ohio Attorney General’s Office. The Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation, which is overseen by the AG’s office, refused the request.

“The search warrants were executed as part of the Oakhill investigation,” Tierney said. “But this indictment is related to actions separate from Oakhill.”

Read what they found, and more about the case in Friday's Vindicator or on Vindy.com.