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Yavorcik’s lawyers ask for dismissal, citing improper venue
CLEVELAND
The attorney representing Martin Yavorcik is asking the judge in the Oakhill Renaissance criminal-corruption case to dismiss the charges against his client contending Cuyahoga County isn’t the proper venue for his trial.
Yavorcik, a failed 2008 independent Mahoning County prosecutor; Youngstown Mayor John A. McNally; and ex-county Auditor Michael V. Sciortino – the latter two are Democrats – are accused of being part of a criminal enterprise to impede or stop the relocation of a county agency from a building owned by a Cafaro Co. subsidiary to Oakhill, the former Forum Health Southside Medical Center, owned by the county.
An indictment contends the enterprise also tried to get Yavorcik elected prosecutor to make a criminal investigation into the matter go away.
Yavorcik, McNally and Sciortino face a total of 83 criminal counts including engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity, bribery, conspiracy, perjury and money laundering. They’ve pleaded not guilty.
The dismissal motion filed Tuesday by Mark Lavelle, Yavorcik’s attorney, states that none of the elements of his client’s purported offenses occurred in Cuyahoga County, where the case is being heard.
“In order for the state to have properly indicted Yavorcik in Cuyahoga County, they must have alleged in the conspiracy count that Yavorcik, Sciortino or McNally committed a ‘substantial overt act’ in furtherance of the conspiracy in Cuyahoga County after Yavorcik’s alleged entry into the conspiracy in 2008. They have failed to do so,” Lavelle wrote.
Any purported criminal acts committed by McNally and Sciortino in the indictment after 2008 occurred in Mahoning or Franklin County so prosecutors have failed to establish Cuyahoga County as the proper venue for Yavorick, Lavelle wrote.
Also, he wrote that any alleged criminal conduct by McNally, Sciortino, three Cleveland law firms and “Businessman 1,” identified in other court documents as former Cafaro Co. head Anthony Cafaro Sr., in Cuyahoga County occurred before Yavorcik filed for Mahoning County prosecutor.
Lavelle added: “Simply stated, defendant Yavorcik has had zero conduct with Cuyahoga County before, during and after the Oakhill litigation.”
Dan Tierney, a spokesman for the attorney general’s office, the lead prosecutor on the Oakhill case, said, “The other defendants in the case did a similar filing, and the judge rejected it. We hope she would do the same here. We’re looking forward to taking care of these technical issues so the citizens of Mahoning County and Cuyahoga County can hear the case and hear what these public officials did.”
In June, Judge Janet R. Burnside, who’s overseeing this case, rejected motions to dismiss from the attorneys representing McNally and Sciortino over venue.
Also in June, the judge rejected a separate motion from Lavelle to dismiss the indictment against Yavorcik. In that court filing, Lavelle contended the Ohio Elections Commission had “exclusive initial jurisdiction of alleged election law violations.”
Judge Burnside also rejected a motion from Yavorcik’s previous attorney in August 2014 to dismiss the case over speedy-trial issues.