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Oakhill witness list includes 92 people, including 86 by name
State's Supplemental Witness List
Document
State of Ohio vs. John McNally, Michael Sciortino, and Martin Yavorcik witness list.
By DAVID SKOLNICK
skolnick@vindy.com
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.
Also on the potential witness list are Earl “Butch” Marian, a longtime friend of Cafaro Sr., and Richard Goldberg, also a close friend of Cafaro Sr. and a disbarred attorney who prosecutors said was involved in recruiting attorney Martin Yavorcik to run unsuccessfully for prosecutor in 2008.
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.
Among the current and former public officials on Tuesday’s list:
David Bozanich, Youngstown’s finance director; Joyce Kale-Pesta, Mahoning County Board of Elections director; Thomas P. McCabe, the election board’s deputy director; Jamael Tito Brown, a former Youngstown council president and 3rd Ward councilman who is director of operations for the county treasurer’s office; Herman Hill, a former Youngstown 3rd Ward councilman who worked for a number of local political candidates; Nancy Laboy, clerk of the county board of commissioners; county Commissioner Anthony T. Traficanti; ex-county Commissioner David N. Ludt; Anthony Vivo, county clerk of courts; county Prosecutor Paul J. Gains; George Tablack, former county auditor and administrator; J. Robert Lyden, the former county sanitary engineer; and Gary Van Brocklin, a former county prosecutor.
Gains called for special prosecutors to investigate the circumstances surrounding Job and Family Services and Oakhill.
In May 2006, McNally was the sole dissenter with the other two commissioners, Ludt and Traficanti, voting to relocate JFS from Garland to Oakhill.
Other former politicians on the list are either cooperating with prosecutors or were previously identified by The Vindicator from descriptions in court documents.
Those convicted of crimes on the list who are cooperating include ex-state Rep. Ronald V. Gerberry (unlawful compensation of a public official); Lisa Antonini, former county treasurer and ex-county Democratic Party chairwoman (honest services mail fraud); ex-county Treasurer John Reardon (two counts of election falsification); and James G. Tsagaris, a former Trumbull County commissioner (two counts of honest services mail fraud).
Also on the witness list are Michael Morley, the former county Democratic Party chairman who prosecutors said provided assistance to Antonini in concealing a cash payment from Cafaro Sr. in 2008; and George M. McKelvey, a former Youngstown mayor and county treasurer, who prosecutors contend received campaign contributions for his failed 2006 county commissioner race from Cafaro Sr. in the names of other people.
Prosecutors say there is no evidence that McKelvey knew that.
Other cooperating witnesses are Carol McFall, formerly the county’s chief deputy auditor, and Anthony Magnetta, the former budget analyst in the auditor’s office when Sciortino was the elected auditor.
Prosecutors say the two, no longer employed by the county, and others in the county auditor’s office were instructed by Sciortino to use government-owned computers and software for political purposes.
Several attorneys from Cleveland and the Mahoning Valley are on the list of potential witnesses.
Among the locals are Sam Amendolara, Carl Nunziato, Alan Kretzer, Stephen R. Garea, Melissa M. Macejko, and Timothy J. Matune.