Witness list for Oakhill case virtual Mahoning County who's who

CLEVELAND

A virtual who’s who of Mahoning County current and former public officials, attorneys from this area and Cleveland, and several members of the Cafaro family are on the prosecutor’s list of potential witnesses in the Oakhill Renaissance Place criminal-corruption case.

In all, the list includes 86 names, five keepers of records at banks and the keeper of records at the U.S Bankruptcy Court.

The list was first posted early Tuesday on The Vindicator’s website, Vindy.com. The list contained only the names of the potential witnesses. The Vindicator determined the connections and/or job titles for all of them.

Joining Anthony Cafaro Sr., the retired head of his family-owned business, on the potential witness list are his brother, John J. Cafaro, a retired Cafaro Co. executive; Flora Cafaro, his sister and a Cafaro Co. executive; his daughter, Alyce; and Flora’s two sons, William and John Ferraro.

Even Flora’s ex-husband, John C. Ferraro; and Ben Martin, Alyce Cafaro’s ex-husband; are on the witness list. A court document filed by prosecutors last year revealed that Martin’s Key Bank account is among the documents listed as potential evidence in the Oakhill case.

Prosecutors allege that Youngstown Mayor John A. McNally in his previous capacity as a Mahoning County commissioner, ex-county Auditor Michael V. Sciortino, both Democrats; and Yavorcik; were part of a criminal enterprise to benefit the Cafaro Co.

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

The enterprise members are accused in an indictment and other court documents of illegally trying to stop or impede the relocation of the county’s Department of Job and Family Services from Garland Plaza, owned by a Cafaro Co. subsidiary, to Oakhill, the former Forum Health Southside Medical Center owned by the county.

The indictment, unsealed in May 2014, also contends the three defendants along with numerous unindicted co-conspirators in the criminal enterprise tried to get Yavorcik elected county prosecutor to make an investigation into Oakhill go away.

Read more about the case and the witness list in Wednesday's Vindicator or on Vindy.com.