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Oakhill defendants' motion challenging venue is overruled
By Denise Dick
CLEVELAND
The judge in the Oakhill Renaissance Place criminal-corruption case overruled a motion by defense attorneys for Youngstown Mayor John A. McNally and Michael V. Sciortino, ex-Mahoning County auditor, arguing that Cuyahoga County lacks jurisdiction for the case.
Judge Janet R. Burnside of Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court issued the ruling Friday.
“This decision was expected, but the attorney general’s office is nonetheless pleased with the ruling,” Dan Tierney, an attorney general’s office spokesman, said in an email Friday.
Last April, Atty. John B. Juhasz, who represents Sciortino, and Atty. Lynn Maro, who represents McNally, asked Judge Burnside to dismiss the case, contending Cuyahoga County isn’t the proper venue.
Neither Juhasz nor Maro could be reached.
If prosecutors can prove a course of conduct occurred in Cuyahoga County, that county is proper venue for out-of-county offenses or those occurring in Mahoning and other Ohio counties if they prove the offenses are part of the same course of conduct that occurred in Cuyahoga, the ruling says.
However, the judge wrote that since jurisdiction can be questioned at any time, “the court can revisit this issue should the parties have a basis to raise it more specifically in the future.”
The indictment says the alleged criminal acts committed in furtherance of the criminal enterprise occurred in Cuyahoga, Mahoning, Geauga and Franklin counties.
The judge acknowledged that venue lies in the county where alleged offenses occurred, in this case Cuyahoga County, and “that venue also lies here for out-of-county offenses that are part of the same course of conduct occurring in Cuyahoga County.”
The judge wrote that she cannot require during pretrial proceedings that prosecutors establish proof of venue.
But “the defendants are entitled to know which counts of the indictment it alleges occurred in Cuyahoga County and which occurred in Mahoning County or a different Ohio county,” the ruling said. “Before any jury could be properly instructed, the state would have to delineate for each count whether the venue element is alleged to be” in Cuyahoga or in Mahoning “and the offense was part of the same course of conduct occurring in Cuyahoga County.”
The defense attorneys also argued against the venue because there is “no nexus between the claimed illegal conduct of these defendants and Cuyahoga County,” Judge Burnside’s ruling says. “As shown in the foregoing, ‘nexus’ is not the legal test for venue in Ohio.”
A Cuyahoga County grand jury indicted McNally, Sciortino – both Democrats – and failed Mahoning County prosecutor candidate Martin Yavorcik in May 2014 on 83 criminal counts, including engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity, bribery, conspiracy, perjury and money laundering. The three have pleaded not guilty.
Prosecutors contend the three 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.
Cafaro received $440,000 a year in rent from the county to house JFS, and it was relocated by county commissioners “because of the poor condition of the building and other issues,” according to prosecutors.
The enterprise, which included many others who aren’t indicted, also wanted to get Yavorcik elected prosecutor in 2008 to make a criminal investigation into the matter go away, prosecutors allege.
Prosecutors say the criminal enterprise began Jan. 3, 2005, when McNally was sworn in as a Mahoning County commissioner and spoke with Anthony Cafaro Sr., then president of the Cafaro Co., to discuss the possible relocation of JFS.