Former aide to Sen. Cafaro indicted on theft charages

Staff report

WARREN

Jonathan M. Wike Jr. has been indicted in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court on charges of theft from a person in a protected class and grand theft involving his former job as district director for State Sen. Capri Cafaro.

Cafaro of Liberty, D-32nd, fired Wike after allegations surfaced that he may have improperly cashed at least seven checks totaling $4,316 at Seven Seventeen Credit Union branches in three communities in June. The Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation investigated.

Wike, 30, of Stepney Street in Niles, is accused of committing the thefts between January 2012 and July 2015, according to his indictment. If convicted, he could get several years in prison. Cafaro fired Wike on July 8.

Cafaro said she hired Wike in 2008 to be her district director, and he worked out of a ninth-floor office at 108 Main Ave. NW, the Huntington Bank building.

Wike, who first met Cafaro in 2004 during her unsuccessful congressional bid, was making about $35,000 a year. Cafaro said she paid for the operation of the district office with her own money.

The state doesn’t provide money for district operations, and none of the missing money came from public funds, she said.

The theft from a person in a protected class accuses Wike of stealing between $7,500 and $37,500 from a woman, Theeda Simeone, 89, of Niles.

Also indicted Wednesday was Susan Manusakis, 54, of Country Club Avenue in Youngstown, on charges of grand theft and seven counts of forgery.

She’s accused of theft of $21,749 from 26 checks from the Warren Secretarial Association, the union that represents secretaries within the Warren City Schools. She was president of the association at the time she was charged in November. No school funds were involved.