UPDATE | Harry Strabala revealed as secret informant at Oakhill hearing

CLEVELAND — In a stunning move, long time Youngstown political consultant Harry Strabala admitted he secretly recorded ex-Mahoning County Auditor Michael V. Sciortino.

The admission came at the end of a nearly five-hour hearing today on the number of hours of secretly recorded tapes in the Oakhill Renaissance Place criminal-corruption case.

FBI Special Agent Wallace Sines explained what the case's main confidential source did for a decade including sometimes wearing two recording devices to record those law enforcement officials believe were involved in corruption. Sines' description during testimony was followed by a private discussion among lawyers on both sides.

Then Strabala, long suspected of being the main confidential source in the case, testified for a few minutes. His testimony matched that of Sines' description of the secret informant.

Earlier in the day, Dan Kasaris, the case's lead prosecutor and a senior assistant attorney general, said the FBI, which possessed all the tapes, recently found 12 additional recordings at his request to look again. Those tapes will be given to the defense next week, he said.

None of the case's three defendants — Youngstown Mayor John A. McNally, attorney Martin Yavorcik or Sciortino —are on those tapes, Kasaris said.

Prosecutors say they turned over all the tapes, about 700 hours in total, to defense attorneys. Kasaris said today it could be as much as 800 hours.

However, the attorneys for two of the defendants argue there are 2,000 hours made by at least two confidential witnesses.

That is based on statements made by special prosecutors in the first Oakhill case in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court in 2010. That case was dismissed a year later, with the right to indict again, because federal authorities said they were in possession of secret tapes made by informants of at least one defendant and wouldn’t give them to prosecutors in that case.

Prosecutors had said the 2,000 hours was an “off-the-cuff” estimate, and objected to today’s hearing.

Kasaris said the 12 newly-found hours are not close to making up the supposed missing 1,200 to 1,300 hours.

He said there are other recordings exist of some unindicted co-conspirators, but they have nothing to do with this case or its defendants.

Judge Janet R. Burnside of Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court, who is overseeing the case, agreed with defense attorneys in a Sept. 22 decision that they could subpoena various people.

During the hearing, Lynn Maro, McNally's attorney, and Kasaris said there are about 100 people on the prosecutor's list of potential witnesses.

While acknowledging that Anthony Cafaro Sr. is on that list, Kasaris said he didn't expect the retired head of his family-owned Cafaro Co. to testify at this case.

Also, Kasaris said on the stand that there are secret recordings of a third confidential witness, and those recordings had nothing to do with this case.

Maro said ex-Mahoning County Commissioner David Ludt made a recording, but didn't elaborate.

On the witness stand, David P. Muhek, a Lorain County assistant prosecutor and a special prosecutor during the first Oakhill trial, said federal agents told him in December 2010 they had approximately 2,000 hours of secretly recorded tapes.

Also testifying today were the two other special prosecutors from the first Oakhill case — Paul M. Nick, executive director of the Ohio Ethics Commission; and Lorain County Prosecutor Dennis Will — as well as two Youngstown-based FBI special agents: Deane Hassman and Wallace Sines.

Prosecutors contend McNally in his previous capacity as a Mahoning County commissioner and Sciortino, both Democrats, as well as attorney Martin Yavorcik, a failed 2008 Mahoning County prosecutor candidate, were part of a criminal enterprise that illegally tried to impede or stop the move of the county Department of Job and Family Services from Garland Plaza, owned by a Cafaro Co. subsidiary, to Oakhill Renaissance Place, the former Forum Health Southside Medical Center, owned by the county.

The three have pleaded not guilty to 83 total criminal counts including engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity, bribery, conspiracy, perjury and money laundering.