The ex-Mahoning County auditor is accused of illegally using government-owned computers and software more than 300 times
Sciortino Bill of Particulars
Bill of Particulars in the State of Ohio vs. Michael V. Sciortino (Case No. 2015 CR 00542). Outlines charges against Sciortino related to his alleged use of county equipment for personal business.
YOUNGSTOWN
Former Mahoning County Auditor Michael V. Sciortino and three of his employees at his direction illegally used government-owned computers and software more than 300 times to raise money for political purposes to keep him in office, according to court documents.
Dan Kasaris, a senior assistant attorney general prosecuting this case, on Tuesday filed a 36-page bill of particulars and an 18-page response to request for discovery that provides details about the purported criminal activity of Sciortino and three unnamed employees between Oct. 6, 2005, and Aug. 29, 2012.
Also, the bill of particulars states Sciortino used the county computers for his private law practice.
“A price list for performing some of these services was created, modified and/or used on a computer owned by Mahoning County and possessed by” Sciortino, the document claims. The discovery filing lists a fee schedule for Sciortino to provide legal services including power of attorney, writing wills and handling personal injury cases.
Sciortino, 45, an Austintown Democrat, was indicted June 4 on 25 felonies: 21 counts of unauthorized use of property – computer or telecommunication property – and four counts of theft in office. He pleaded not guilty June 16.
John Juhasz, Sciortino’s attorney, couldn’t be reached Tuesday by The Vindicator to comment.
The bill of particulars states prosecutors could pursue “lesser” criminal charges against the three employees for assisting Sciortino. But sources say the workers are cooperating and charges are unlikely.
Included on the discovery document is a list of witnesses in this case.
They are: former county Auditor and Administrator George Tablack; three county auditor employees: Ingrid Cassidy, Jake Williams and Alisa Akuszewski; Anthony Magnetta, a former county auditor employee who resigned in April; Lisa Antonini, a former county treasurer and Democratic Party chairwoman who was once a close friend of Sciortino’s and is helping prosecutors as part of a plea deal; Michael Dodson, James Ciotti, Ed Carlini and Erika Moore, four Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation employees based out of Youngstown; and an unidentified Dell computer representative.
BCI cyber-crime agents, with a search warrant on Sept. 22, 2014, removed numerous computers and 676 computer disks from Sciortino’s auditor’s office in the county courthouse, the county’s information-technologies department at the administrative building and the county’s computer-network facility at Oakhill Renaissance Place. The agents also seized two county-owned laptops and a computer hard drive from Sciortino at his home.
That search warrant was related to a criminal case against Sciortino as well as Youngstown Mayor John A. McNally, a Democrat in his former capacity as a county commissioner, and attorney Martin Yavorcik, an unsuccessful 2008 independent candidate for county prosecutor.
The three face 83 total criminal counts in that case including engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity, bribery, conspiracy, perjury and money laundering. The three have pleaded not guilty.
That indictment, unsealed May 14, 2014, in Cuyahoga County, accuses them of being part of a criminal enterprise that illegally, and unsuccessfully, tried to impede or stop the move of the county Department of Job and Family Services from the Cafaro Co.-owned Garland Plaza to Oakhill, the former Forum Health Southside Medical Center owned by the county.
The Sciortino indictment included accusations that he illegally used public computers and software on at least 21 separate times for campaign materials such as fundraiser tickets, invitations, thank-you letters and donation solicitations.
The documents filed Tuesday included copies of those actual campaign materials including letters about an “Evening of Music” fundraiser on Feb. 10, 2006, with “special performances” by Sciortino directly related to three of the 25 charges. Sciortino wrote in a Jan. 8, 2006, letter: “As many of you know, I am a musician and will be performing.”
Also included Tuesday was a list of more than 300 other times he purportedly used public equipment for his political campaigns.
That included at least 130 postings on a county computer and software of political events for Sciortino to attend, 61 pages of names of people to invite in 2008 to a Sciortino fundraiser, a 73-page file that appears to prosecutors to be “a template for letters to over 100 people for political purposes,” and a copy of a speech in which Sciortino “asks a group of people to vote for him for county auditor, citing, among other [things], his integrity, leadership and qualifications.”
Kasaris wrote that “the misuse of” computers by Sciortino was “a continued reflection of corruption.”
This case is assigned to Mahoning County Common Pleas Court Judge Shirley Christian.
Sciortino was appointed auditor by the county Democratic Party, with assistance from then-Chairwoman Antonini on Sept. 14, 2005, to fill the vacancy left by Tablack. Sciortino was elected in 2006 and 2010, then lost the 2014 election to Republican Ralph Meacham.
Sciortino was under indictment in both the 2010 and 2014 elections. The first case was dismissed in July 2011, with the ability to indict him again, when the FBI wouldn’t turn over secretly recorded tapes of defendants. The tapes were given to the attorney general’s office last year, and Sciortino, Yavorcik and McNally were indicted. That case is supposed to go to trial March 1, 2016.