43
An agreement in the Oakhill criminal-corruption case will allow certain defense witnesses to hear secret recordings
YOUNGSTOWN
Prosecutors and defense attorneys in the Oakhill Renaissance Place criminal- corruption case have an agreement in place to allow certain defense witnesses to listen to specific secret recordings that are expected to be used in the trial.
Also, prosecutors will provide the rest of their evidence to defense attorneys in about a week, said Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court Judge Janet R. Burnside, who is overseeing the case.
“The state’s discovery [a legal term for evidence] is almost complete,” Judge Burnside said Friday after a pretrial hearing in Cleveland.
The next pretrial hearing hasn’t been scheduled.
“I have rulings to make; I have some work to do” before deciding on a date for the next pretrial, Judge Burnside said.
Among the decisions she needs to make is whether the three defendants will be tried at the same time or separately, though that may not be determined before the next pretrial hearing.
At Friday’s hearing, the two sides agreed that defense witnesses must sign documents promising not to discuss what they hear on secret recordings, made by confidential witnesses, which prosecutors plan to use as evidence in the case.
Prosecutors labeled some evidence as “counsel only,” a legal term that means defense attorneys can’t share it.
Attorneys for the defendants – Youngstown Mayor John A. McNally, ex-Mahoning County Auditor Michael V. Sciortino and attorney Martin Yavorcik – have objected to the labeling saying they can’t properly prepare their case if their witnesses can’t listen to recordings made by confidential sources.
Prosecutors have said the request is reasonable, but they are concerned about the safety of their confidential informants. One was threatened at Southern Park Mall in Boardman on May 7, 2014, a week before the indictment was unsealed, according to the Ohio Attorney General’s Office, the lead prosecutor on this case.
The agreement was hand-delivered Friday to the court by Lynn A. Maro and John B. Juhasz, attorneys for McNally and Sciortino, respectively. It was not listed Friday on the Cuyahoga County Clerk of Courts’ website. Attempts Friday by The Vindicator to get a copy of the agreement from Maro, Juhasz, the clerk of courts and the AG’s office were unsuccessful.
McNally, in his capacity as a Mahoning County commissioner, as well as Sciortino and Yavorcik were indicted May 14, 2014, on 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 McNally, Sciortino and Yavorcik were part of a criminal enterprise that illegally – and unsuccessfully – tried to 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.
The enterprise, which included numerous others who aren’t indicted, also wanted to get Yavorcik elected prosecutor in 2008 as an independent candidate to make a criminal investigation into the matter go away, prosecutors allege.
The trial is scheduled to start March 1, 2016.
McNally and Sciortino are Democrats. Sciortino lost his re-election bid last November to Republican Ralph Meacham.