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More is in store from Sciortino indictment
On the side
When Cincinnati City Councilman P.G. Sittenfeld came to The Vindicator earlier this week to discuss his candidacy for the U.S. Senate, he talked a lot about the middle class and what the government can do to help those in it.
I asked Sittenfeld, a 30-year-old Democrat, how he could relate to the middle class as he grew up in a wealthy family.
“By being a compassionate person, by being a good listener,” Sittenfeld responded. “The Kennedys, and I’m certainly no Kennedy, but it’s about what kind of heart do you have for the other person. ... Any leader is asked to weigh in on a whole lot of topics including things that might not have been part of their own experience, and that’s where your compassion, your judgment, all of that comes in.”
Sittenfeld seemed somewhat surprised by the question. We moved to another topic, but he went back to it.
“I just want to be crystal clear about this. I live on my paycheck. I don’t have some flush trust fund at all. I’m living like a whole lot of people. I live on my paycheck in a modest apartment with my fiance. I drive my Chevy Cruze.”
Based on what’s in and what’s not in the latest indictment against Michael V. Sciortino, expect prosecutors to accuse the ex-Mahoning County auditor of dozens or even hundreds of illegal uses of government-owned computers and software.
Sciortino’s 25-felony-count indictment, unsealed June 4, alleges the 45-year-old Austintown Democrat illegally used public property for business purposes – specifically his political campaigns and his private law practice – between Oct. 6, 2005, about three weeks after he was appointed auditor, and Aug. 29, 2012.
But the indictment lists only 21 specific claims of illegal use. That’s one for each count of unauthorized use of public property – computer or telecommunication property.
The indictment states Sciortino used government-owned computers and software for campaign fundraiser letters, donation solicitations, invitations, tickets, fliers, address labels, cards, letterheads and advertisements between Jan. 2, 2006, and June 27, 2012. There are big gaps in most of those years.
However, that’s only a small part of the story.
The four counts of theft in office provide no details except the dates of nearly seven years of purported illegal use and that it was for his political campaigns and 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, told me the day Sciortino was indicted.
During the discovery phase of this criminal case, the details of Sciortino’s alleged misuse of county-owned computers and software will be disclosed.
Also of interest is that the county auditor is head of the information-technologies department, so Sciortino should know what he could and couldn’t do with the county’s computer system.
The IT department at the county administration building along with Sciortino’s then- office at the county courthouse and the county’s computer-network facility at Oakhill Renaissance Place were the locations where the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation seized numerous computers and computer accessories during the execution of a search warrant on Sept. 22, 2014.
The search was part of the investigation into Sciortino’s involvement in the Oakhill criminal-corruption case.
During that search, BCI cyber-crime agents took two laptops and a hard drive, all owned by the county, from Sciortino at his house.
Sciortino said he cooperated, but the Ohio Attorney General’s Office, which oversees BCI, said Sciortino wanted to keep one of the computers overnight with him and turn it over the next day. The agents refused the request.
When agents executed the search warrant, there wasn’t a computer in Sciortino’s personal office at the auditor’s department.
Arraigned Tuesday, Sciortino will have first pretrial hearing next week. The case is scheduled to start Aug. 3, but don’t count on that because a review of the evidence will take quite a while.
In the Oakhill case, Sciortino along with Youngstown Mayor John A. McNally and attorney Martin Yavorcik are facing 83 criminal counts in total
They’re accused of being part of a criminal enterprise to illegally, and unsuccessfully, impede or stop the move of the county Department of Job and Family Services from the Cafaro Co.-owned Garland Plaza to Oakhill.