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Political consultant admits he secretly recorded Sciortino
CLEVELAND
Youngstown political consultant Harry Strabala admitted he secretly recorded ex-Mahoning County Auditor Michael V. Sciortino. And based on his testimony and that of an FBI agent at a hearing, he is the main confidential witness in the Oakhill Renaissance Place criminal-corruption case.
Strabala’s surprising testimony came at the end of a nearly five-hour hearing Friday regarding the number of hours of secretly recorded tapes in the case.
While on the witness stand, FBI Special Agent Wallace Sines explained what the case’s main confidential witness did for a decade, including sometimes wearing two recording devices to tape people law-enforcement officials believed were involved in corruption. Sines also said the confidential source stopped taping Sciortino at the request of the FBI after Sciortino hired an attorney.
Sines’ description during testimony was followed by a private discussion among lawyers on both sides.
Then Strabala testified for a few minutes. His testimony matched that of Sines’ description of the main secret informant.
Strabala said he talked daily with Sciortino, one of the three Oakhill defendants, and met with him frequently, recording the former auditor at the request of the FBI.
Prosecutors had tried to shield Strabala’s identity and not have him testify at Friday’s hearing. If their main confidential informant had to testify, prosecutors wanted it to be done behind closed doors to protect his identity as they contend he had been threatened a few times.
But Judge Janet R. Burnside of Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court, who is overseeing the case, ruled that Strabala had to testify in public.
The focus of the hearing was on the number of hours of secretly recorded tapes made by confidential witnesses.
In addition, other unknown information came to light.
FBI Special Agent Deane Hassman said that in 2007 the bureau started an investigation into local corruption. Hassman specifically mentioned Anthony Cafaro Sr., the retired head of his family-owned Cafaro Co., after Atty. John B. Juhasz, Sciortino’s lawyer, asked about him.
“There was a broader scope of tapings,” Hassman said.
He later said his case file “involves multiple public officials, multiple people and multiple investigations.”
Oakhill court documents filed by prosecutors contend Cafaro, who often is referred to as Businessman 1, illegally conspired with elected politicians, candidates, public officials and attorneys to have Mahoning County maintain its Job and Family Services office in Garland Plaza. The now-demolished shopping center on Youngstown’s East Side was owned by Ohio Valley Mall, a Cafaro Co. subsidiary. OVM received $440,000 a year in rent from the county to house JFS.
Cafaro hasn’t been charged with any wrongdoing.
Instead of staying at Garland, county commissioners voted 2-1 to move JFS to Oakhill Renaissance Place, the former Forum Health Southside Medical Center purchased by the county.
Prosecutors contend Youngstown Mayor John A. McNally, in his previous capacity as a Mahoning County commissioner, and Sciortino, both Democrats, as well as Atty. Martin Yavorcik, a failed 2008 Mahoning County prosecutor candidate, were part of a criminal enterprise that illegally tried to impede or stop the move. McNally was the lone no vote on relocating JFS.
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.
Dan Kasaris, the case’s lead prosecutor and a senior assistant attorney general, said Friday the FBI, which possessed all the tapes, recently found 12 additional recordings after he requested they look again. Those tapes will be given to the defense next week, he said.
None of the case’s three defendants is on those tapes, Kasaris said.
Prosecutors have said a number of times that they have no tapes of McNally.
Prosecutors also said they turned over all the tapes, about 700 hours in total, to defense attorneys. Kasaris said Friday it could be as much as 800 hours.
However, the attorneys for Sciortino and McNally argue there are 2,000 hours of tapes made by 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 Friday’s hearing.
Kasaris said the 12 newly found tapes are not close to making up the supposed missing 1,200 to 1,300 hours.
He said other recordings exist of some unindicted co-conspirators, but they have nothing to do with this case or its defendants.
At its core, the issue is that defense attorneys contend that the other tapes in possession of the FBI being withheld are important to this case, while prosecutors say any recordings related to this case by the confidential witnesses that are pertinent to this have been given to the defense attorneys.
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 Cafaro is on that list, Kasaris said he didn’t expect the retired businessman to testify in this case.
Also mentioned at the hearing is that while David Ludt served as a county commissioner, he secretly recorded a conversation with J.J. Cafaro, Anthony Cafaro’s brother who was an executive in the family company, about the county’s buying Oakhill. Ludt along with Commissioner Anthony Traficanti backed the JFS relocation.
After the hearing, Judge Burnside told The Vindicator that she didn’t know when she would have a decision and didn’t know what there is to decide.