Burghill man pleads guilty to threats against Betras

Staff report

AKRON

Charles J. Reighard has pleaded guilty as charged to mailing extor- tion letters to Atty. David Betras and threatening to damage or destroy Betras’ Canfield law office with an explosive.

Reighard, 67, of state Route 7, Burghill, entered his plea Tuesday before U.S. District Judge Sara Lioi, who will sentence him at 11 a.m. June 10. He could receive a sentence of up to 25 years in prison.

The first count of the indictment alleges Reighard, a former Betras client, sent letters to Betras between Sept. 4 and Oct. 17, 2014, with intent to extort money from him and threatening to injure Betras and his family. One of the letters demanded $4 million, the FBI said.

The second count of the indictment says that on Oct. 16, Reighard falsely implied an explosive would damage or destroy Betras’ office.

On that day, an employee of Betras, Kopp & Harshman LLC, 6630 Seville Drive, arrived to find a second-floor window of the law office broken and a device beneath it, which bomb-squad technicians determined was a complete pipe bomb, except for the explosive powder.

In addition to being a lawyer, Betras also is Mahoning County Democratic Party chairman.

On Nov. 3, U.S. Magistrate George J. Limbert in Youngstown ordered that Reighard remain locked up without bond while the case is pending, saying he feared Reighard might eventually produce a functioning pipe bomb.

Last week, Judge Lioi upheld Magistrate Limbert’s detention order.

When Mahoning County deputy sheriffs executed a search warrant at Reighard’s home and arrested him Oct. 23, they said they found an unopened package of 3 mm safety fuse 10 feet in length; several pieces of galvanized metal pipe; and a typed draft of a letter in a trash can with Betras’ and Reighard’s names on it.

Betras represented Reighard, who was charged in 1999 with vandalism over allegations he caused new cars to catch fire by deliberately driving a car into them at the General Motors Lordstown plant, where he was employed.

Betras negotiated a deal in which Reighard pleaded guilty to telecommunications harassment and was put on five years’ probation.

Reighard claimed, however, that Betras, the prosecutor and the judge conspired to get him fired from GM and to “ruin his life,” according to an FBI agent’s affidavit.