Dems’ walk of shame

When the “Trial of the Century” gets underway in March in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court, there will be a parade of witnesses, many of them bearing the Mahoning Valley’s political Scarlet Letter – “D”.

And as the marked ones testify under oath to the crimes they committed while serving the public – talk about a misnomer – the world will once again get an up-close look at the political corruption that has defined the Valley for so long.

Indeed, it is appropriate that the Oakhill Renaissance Place criminal conspiracy trial will take place in Cleveland. In 2002, there was another epoch-making trial there featuring the Valley’s most influential politician, James A. Traficant Jr.

Traficant was convicted of a slew of federal criminal charges, including racketeering, bribery and tax evasion. The charges stemmed from his 17-year tenure in Congress. After his conviction in federal court by a jury, he was expelled from the House.

Traficant served almost eight years in federal prison, returned to the Valley a conquering hero and died last year in an accident on his farm.

Then, as now, it was the Democratic Party that was on trial. Thus, the Scarlet Letter – “D.”

There are three defendants in the Oakhill Renaissance state case – it is to be hoped they will be the first of many in this sordid tale of government corruption: Youngstown Mayor and former Mahoning County Commissioner John A. McNally, a Democrat; former county Auditor Michael Sciortino, a Democrat; Youngstown Atty. Martin Yavorcik, a Democrat.

There are 80 or so witnesses on the list made public last week by state prosecutors, and among them are political and financial movers and shakers and sleazy politicians.

Tissue-thin resume

Take, for instance, Lisa Antonini. She personifies the corruption that is so endemic in the area. Armed with a tissue-thin resume, she became county treasurer – after serving as chairwoman of the Mahoning County Democratic Party.

She resigned in 2011 and pleaded guilty to a single federal count of honest- services mail fraud. She admitted that she did not report a $3,000 cash contribution from Anthony M. Cafaro Sr. on a campaign finance report.

Cafaro, retired president of the Cafaro Co., is identified in court documents as the mastermind of the conspiracy to block Mahoning County commissioners from buying Oakhill Renaissance Place, the former Southside Medical Center.

Two commissioners at the time, Anthony Traficanti and David Ludt, had made it clear that the purchase of Oakhill would result in the county’s Job and Family Services agency being relocated from the Cafaro Co.-owned Garland Plaza on the East Side. McNally opposed the purchase.

Antonini served five months in federal prison and as part of the plea agreement has been cooperating in the probe of government corruption in the Valley.

Also in the parade of the region’s political slugs is former Trumbull County Commissioner James G. Tsagaris, who accepted $36,551 from Cafaro Sr. while in office. Tsagaris, a Democrat, was convicted in 2009 for honest- services mail-fraud.

Then there’s former state Rep. Ronald V. Gerberry, Mr. Democratic Party insider, who resigned in August after pleading guilty to a misdemeanor related to his mishandling of campaign funds.