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Yavorcik has suffered for crimes despite avoiding time behind bars
On the side
The 224 Corridor Democratic Club will have a “Public Servants Serving Pasta” event from 4:30 to 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Sulmona Valley Club, 92 S. Bridge St. in Struthers. Several local elected officials will serve pasta to those attending the event.
Tickets to the event are $15 and will be available for purchase at the door or by calling 330-718-0353. Carryout will also be available.
The Ohio National Guard Association honored U.S. Sen. Rob Portman, a Republican from the Cincinnati area, with its Maj. Gen. Charles Dick Award for Legislative Excellence. The award recognizes Ohio legislators who have provided outstanding support to the Ohio National Guard.
“The court finds that a community control/probation sanction will adequately protect the public and will not demean the seriousness of the offense.”
With that, Judge Janet R. Burnside of Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court chose not to send Martin Yavorcik, convicted of eight felonies related to the Oakhill Renaissance Place scandal, to even a single day of prison.
The sentence came as a surprise even to Yavorcik.
Judge Burnside has a reputation of giving light sentences, according to lawyers I know who have had cases in front of her, but among Yavorcik’s convictions was engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity, a first-degree felony.
The judge recognized the seriousness of the crimes, saying they were part of “organized criminal activity” and that as a lawyer, Yavorcik’s profession “is to bring criminals to justice.”
Despite that, Judge Burnside said, “I’m giving Mr. Yavorcik a break on this.”
She sentenced him to five years’ probation with the first year on house arrest.
The judge chalked up Yavorcik’s crimes to something akin to youthful indiscretions.
“He was only 34 when he committed these crimes,” Judge Burnside said about the convictions related to Yavorcik’s failed 2008 independent campaign for Mahoning County prosecutor.
Judge Burnside said to Yavorcik before sentencing him: “In retrospect, you should have taken a plea.”
Prosecutors offered Yavorcik deals at least three times: a felony and two misdemeanors. Yavorcik said he was open to taking a plea, but wasn’t offered a deal he could accept.
Based on her comments, Judge Burnside gave Yavorcik probation instead of prison for two reasons.
One is she believed he’s suffered enough and there’s no benefit to society to put him in prison.
The other is his two co- defendants – Youngstown Mayor John A. McNally and ex-Mahoning County Auditor Michael V. Sciortino, both Democrats – took plea deals and she gave them a year of probation each.
A jury found Yavorcik guilty of being part of the Oakhill criminal enterprise.
That enterprise supposedly illegally conspired in 2006 to stop Mahoning County from buying Oakhill Renaissance Place, a closed hospital building, and move its Department of Job and Family Services there from a building owned by a Cafaro Co. subsidiary. That effort failed.
Yavorcik joined the conspiracy in 2008 by promising to make a criminal investigation into Oakhill go away if he was elected.
Judge Burnside said to prosecutors that they considered Yavorcik to be in the “lower echelon” of the Oakhill criminal enterprise.
But Matthew E. Meyer, one of three lawyers who prosecuted Yavorcik, said Yavorcik’s crimes were “worse” than McNally and Sciortino because they already opposed the Oakhill purchase while Yavorcik “did this purely for personal gain.”
Prosecutors will appeal the judge’s sentence with Meyer saying it “sends the wrong message,” and “we are concerned about the impact of this sentence on future Martin Yavorciks who might try to turn the office of prosecuting attorney into an auction house for their powerful friends.”
There is no doubt that Yavorcik has suffered for his crimes.
He’s surrendered his law license, and with eight felony convictions, he’ll never get it back unless he can somehow overturn the jury’s verdict.
He’s broke and had to declare bankruptcy. Yavorcik filed a motion Wednesday with Judge Burnside stating he is indigent. He is asking the court to appoint legal counsel for his appeal and give him a copy of the trial’s transcript as he cannot cover the cost, which he previously stated is about $10,000.
He’s got $1,100 in assets and $1,808.50 in monthly expenses – including $500 in food – based on an affidavit he filed with the court.
Yavorcik has an alcohol problem and says he will get treatment for that.
Yavorcik also said that wherever he goes in the Mahoning Valley, people stare at him.
Being on house arrest for the next year – unable to leave except for medical appointments, alcohol/drug treatment, to do his 200 hours of community service and to go to work should he find employment – should stop the staring.
But whatever his problems, Yavorcik has no one to blame but himself for the crimes he committed.