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Sciortino indicted – again
Sciortino Indictment File
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Mahoning County Court of Common Pleas State of Ohio VS. Michael Sciortino
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Sciortino
By DAVID SKOLNICK
skolnick@vindy.com
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.
The arraignment is likely to occur in the next two weeks, those familiar with the investigation said.
The attorney general’s office handled this indictment along with the Mahoning County Prosecutor’s Office. Dan Kasaris, a senior assistant AG who also is leading the Oakhill prosecution team, will do the same on this new indictment.
Sciortino’s criminal conduct is alleged to have started Oct. 6, 2005, and ended Aug. 29, 2012. He was appointed auditor by the county Democratic Party on Sept. 14, 2005, to fill the vacancy left by the resignation of George Tablack. Sciortino successfully ran in 2006 for a four-year term, was re-elected in 2010, and – while under indictment for the Oakhill case – lost the November 2014 election to Republican Ralph Meacham.
Attempts Thursday to reach Sciortino and his attorney, John Juhasz, for comment by The Vindicator were unsuccessful.
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.”
BCI cyber-crime agents removed numerous computers and 676 computer disks from Sciortino’s former office in the county courthouse, the county’s information-technologies department at the administrative building and the county’s computer-network facility at Oakhill. The agents also seized two county-owned laptops and a computer hard drive from Sciortino’s home.
The search warrants sought emails to and from Sciortino, Youngstown Mayor John A. McNally, former county probate court Judge Mark Belinky, former county Treasurers John Reardon and Lisa Antonini, then chief deputy auditor Carol McFall, and county Commissioner Carol Rimedio-Righetti.
It’s unlikely anyone else will be indicted related to what was found on the computers, sources told The Vindicator.
At the time the computers and disks were seized, Sciortino told The Vindicator he was cooperating with BCI and the AG since his May 14, 2014, indictment stemming from Oakhill.
Sciortino also said at the time he agreed to meet BCI agents at his home and gave them the two laptops and the hard drive in his driveway without incident. Tierney said at the time that Sciortino “gave them to us after some back and forth” about agents going into his home to retrieve them.
The Thursday indictment said the government-owned computers and software include: tickets, a handout to sell tickets, a letter and invitations for a Feb. 10, 2006, campaign fundraiser for Sciortino; a thank-you letter for that event; campaign cards dated Feb. 24, 2006; an invitation for an April 30, 2008, fundraiser; an Oct. 3, 2008, thank-you letter to the Austintown Democratic Club; return labels for letters sent by his campaign committee Nov. 10, 2008; a campaign ad for a Sebring High School basketball program Nov. 2, 2009; a file in March 2010 for a campaign after-work mixer; a March 2010 letter to absentee voters; an April 20, 2010, email with campaign materials and a list of his endorsements; an email for a July 23, 2010, golf-scramble fundraiser; “Sciortino for Auditor” letterhead from Sept. 9, 2010; an Oct. 7, 2010, letter asking for donations from people who contributed to his campaign before; an April 18, 2011, flier and invitation for another golf-scramble campaign event; a Feb. 16, 2012, letter with a prize list for a golf campaign event; a May 23, 2012, golf-scramble flier and invitation; a June 27, 2012, letter to potential donors listing the cost for hole sponsorship for a golf fundraiser; and an Aug. 13, 2007, file with an ad to retain Sciortino as auditor for a Canfield sports program.
There were no details in the indictment about how he purportedly used government equipment for his law practice.
Paul M. Nick, executive director for the Ohio Ethics Commission, said using public equipment for business purposes is never permitted.
Regarding the new indictment, Meacham said, “I’m working with the staff to move beyond these matters and keep the focus of the office where it should be, which is serving the taxpayers.”
Meacham said he’s been cooperating and will continue to assist BCI with its probe of the auditor’s office.
Anthony Traficanti, chairman of the county commissioners, declined to comment Thursday because the case is being jointly prosecuted by the county. Commissioners David Ditzler and Rimedio-Righetti couldn’t be reached Thursday to comment.
On May 14, 2014, a Cuyahoga County grand jury indicted Sciortino along with McNally, a Democrat acting in his previous capacity as a county commissioner, and Martin Yavorcik, a failed 2008 independent county prosecutor candidate, on 83 total criminal counts.
The charges include engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity, bribery, conspiracy, perjury and money laundering. The trial is scheduled to begin March 1, 2016.
That indictment accuses the three of 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 Oakhill Renaissance Place, the former Forum Health Southside Medical Center, owned by the county.
That case is being prosecuted by the AG’s office with the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor’s Office.
Contributor: Peter H. Milliken, staff writer.