Yavorcik refuses to take Oakhill plea

February 27, 2016 at 12:02a.m.

CLEVELAND

Though his two co-defendants in the Oakhill Renaissance Place criminal-corruption case took plea bargains, Martin Yavorcik said he had no interest in cutting a deal.

Yavorcik, an attorney who is defending himself, said Friday he was “ready to go Monday” – the date the trial against him, Youngstown Mayor John A. McNally and ex-Mahoning County Auditor Michael V. Sciortino was to start.

Instead, the case was postponed to March 14.

Yavorcik faces 11 felonies: one count of engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity, one count of conspiracy, three counts of conspiracy, four counts of money laundering and two counts of tampering with records.

McNally pleaded guilty Friday to four misdemeanors while Sciortino pleaded to one felony and two misdemeanors. Sciortino also will plead guilty to one felony and one misdemeanor in a separate case in Mahoning County.

The two also agreed as part of their deals to testify against Yavorcik if he goes to trial.

The case against Yavorcik, a failed 2008 independent candidate for Mahoning County prosecutor, is spelled out in a motion he filed with the court earlier this month.

That motion included a 24-page document titled “Marty Yavorcik Presentation” that was given to him before he, McNally and Sciortino were indicted May 14, 2014.

Dan Kasaris, the Oakhill case’s lead prosecutor, made the presentation to Yavorcik that states “the purported purpose” of the document was to “offer a resolution of this matter pre-indictment.”

The presentation states prosecutors wanted Yavorcik to cooperate as he was “not the brains behind the enterprise and offenses.”

Prosecutors said they had secretly recorded tapes of Yavorcik saying to a friend that he could fix a case for him, and that Yavorcik admits to taking money for his prosecutor campaign and not reporting it.

Prosecutors also told Yavorcik that former Mahoning County Democratic Party Chairwoman Lisa Antonini, a close friend of his, told them twice that a $2,500 loan to Yavorcik’s campaign was a “bribe.”