Oakhill defense attorneys improperly listed prosecutor addresses in filings, prosecutors say

CLEVELAND

Attorneys for two defendants in the Oakhill Renaissance Place criminal-corruption case improperly listed the home addresses of prosecutors in a court motion listing them as witnesses, prosecutors say.

In a filing today, Matthew E. Meyer, a Cuyahoga County assistant prosecutor who is working on the case, wrote that to list “a prosecutor’s home address during a criminal case” is a fourth-degree misdemeanor.

Attorneys for Youngstown Mayor John A. McNally and ex-Mahoning County Auditor Michael V. Sciortino, two of the Oakhill defendants, included the home address of Mahoning County Prosecutor Paul J. Gains and Linette Stratford, the county’s chief assistant prosecutor, among others, in a Feb. 12 document listing 71 defense witnesses and their last known addresses.

The defense attorneys – Lynn Maro for McNally and John B. Juhasz for Sciortino – then filed a motion late Thursday with the addresses of Gains and Stratford blacked out.

During a Friday hearing in front of Judge Janet R. Burnside of Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court, who is overseeing the trial, attorneys for both sides agreed to black out the addresses of three other assistant prosecutors on the witness list, though those addresses are on the June 12 and Thursday’s court filings by the defense.

In his Friday motion, Meyer wrote: “Due to the nature of their profession, publicly disclosing the home addresses of assistant prosecutors and prosecuting attorneys subject them to threats, intimidation and violence. Prosecutor Gains still bears the scars of a previous attempt on his life made by criminals intent on killing him” at his home.

“Against this backdrop, there is no justifiable reason for an attorney deliberately placing an assistant prosecutor or prosecuting attorney in harm’s way,” Meyer wrote.

Gains’ home address is listed in telephone books, and The Vindicator routinely includes his address in listings of candidates when they file for election and in candidate profiles.

An indictment accuses attorney Martin Yavorcik, a failed 2008 independent Mahoning County prosecutor, along with McNally in his former capacity as a Mahoning County commissioner and Sciortino, both Democrats, of being part of a criminal enterprise that conspired to stop or impede 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.

The three have pleaded not guilty to 53 total counts including engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity, conspiracy, bribery, perjury, money laundering and tampering with records.

Read more about today's hearing in Saturday's Vindicator or on Vindy.com.