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Mistrial for Youngstown lawyers
CLEVELAND
Chief U.S. District Judge Solomon Oliver Jr. declared a mistrial Monday morning in the case of two Youngstown lawyers charged with extortion and obstructing justice.
Attys. Neal Atway, 47, of Youngstown, and Scott Cochran, 43, of Austintown, who are partners in a downtown Youngstown law office bearing their names, testified in their own defense before the jury began deliberating Friday morning at the end of a monthlong trial.
Cochran is a former Mahoning County Bar Association president.
The jurors suspended their deliberations for the weekend and returned to the court Monday morning.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office, which is prosecuting the case, will seek a retrial, said Mike Tobin, a spokesman for that office.
Tobin deferred to the court the explanation of the judge’s reasons for granting the mistrial.
A court spokeswoman said court personnel were authorized only to say that the judge declared the mistrial based on communications received from the jury during deliberations.
The defense lawyers requested — and the judge granted — the mistrial.
“We were very disappointed and reluctant to do so because the evidence of innocence was so strong in favor of Mr. Atway and Mr. Cochran,” said Atway’s lawyer, Roger Synenberg of Cleveland.
“For four weeks, their evidence was weak,” Synenberg said of the assistant U.S. attorneys’ case.
Atway and Cochran were charged with two counts each of violating the Hobbs Act — extortion by wrongful use of actual or threatened force, violence or fear.
They also faced two counts each of conspiring to tamper with a witness, victim or informant; and one count each of lying to FBI agents investigating this case.
The Hobbs Act counts carry a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and a fine up to $250,000 upon conviction.
Conspiracy to tamper with a witness, victim or informant also carries a 20-year prison term.
Lying to law enforcement carries a five- to eight-year prison term.
A co-defendant, Mohd Rawhneh, 54, of Boardman, a convenience-store owner, pleaded guilty last May to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and awaits sentencing in federal court.
Atway and Cochran were accused of trying to extort money for Rawhneh from another convenience-store owner, Charles B. Muth, 42, of Canfield, a defendant in criminal cases who was being represented by Atway and Cochran.
Muth was having a business dispute with Rawhneh.
The indictment alleged that Rawhneh and Atway led Muth to believe that unless Rawhneh got money and property from Muth and Muth’s stores, Rawhneh would appear at Muth’s sentencings and tell the judges facts that could result in harsher sentences for Muth.
Rawhneh and Muth testified for the government in the Atway and Cochran trial.
In an earlier federal case, Muth got five months in prison for growing marijuana in his home.
In a state case, Muth got 18 months in prison on charges of ethnic intimidation and aggravated assault for his role in a Dec. 28, 2011, shooting at the Boardman home of Rawhneh’s ex-wife, in which nobody was hurt.
In that shooting, Muth’s friend Donald K. Loveless, 40, of Hopkins Road, got three years in prison on a charge of improperly discharging a gun at or into a habitation.