Is case of connecting Oakhill dots falling apart?

SEE ALSO: DE SOUZA: Betras displays courage

ANALYSIS

By DAVID SKOLNICK

skolnick@vindy.com

CLEVELAND

After nine years of investigations and allegations into Mahoning County’s purchase of Oakhill Renaissance Place, all that’s officially left is the trial of Martin Yavorcik and the sentencing of two former county officials who took plea deals.

Officially.

Unofficially and unconfirmed has long been talk of again indicting Mahoning Valley businessman Anthony Cafaro Sr.

The former head of his family’s shopping-center empire is listed numerous times either by name or as Businessman 1 in court documents in the Oakhill criminal-corruption case. Prosecutor documents paint Cafaro as the head of the Oakhill criminal enterprise.

But Friday’s court pleadings can only lead one to wonder: If prosecutors ever follow through with their claims, will any result ever matter, and will it be worth the expense and distraction?

Friday’s pleadings don’t seem to indicate so, after all the bluster and despite what Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine called good justice.

The court records accuse Cafaro of perjury or making false statements under oath, improperly paying for legal services for public officials who helped him, bankrolling Yavorcik to run in 2008 for Mahoning County prosecutor to quash an investigation into him and others, improperly offering money to one candidate who refused and to another who accepted.

Cafaro was among those indicted in July 2010 in Mahoning County. That case was dropped a year later when the FBI wouldn’t provide secretly recorded tapes of some of the defendants needed as evidence.

The FBI provided those tapes to the Ohio Attorney General’s Office in 2013, and Yavorcik, Youngstown Mayor John A. McNally in his prior capacity as Mahoning County commissioner, and ex-county Auditor Michael V. Sciortino were indicted May 14, 2014.

That was nearly 22 months ago.

While law-enforcement sources say Cafaro is still under investigation related to the Oakhill case and an investigation in Niles, the question is: Will he ever be indicted?

“This is an active case, and we’re limited in what we can say,” said Matt Donahue, head of the Ohio Attorney General’s Special Prosecutions Section.

Based on Friday’s plea agreements of Sciortino and particularly of McNally, the worst that seems to loom for Cafaro is a similar wrist slap.

McNally was indicted on 18 felonies and 7 misdemeanors. But prosecutors agreed to let him plead guilty to four misdemeanors. He was also permitted to remain mayor — which McNally said he was adamant about. “I was going to be back serving as mayor,” he said.

All this was done even though prosecutors had a copy of a confidential county document related to the Oakhill purchase that he illegally gave to a law firm representing Cafaro.

Donahue said, “The offenses he committed [were] when he held another public office. It becomes an issue” to seek to remove him as Youngstown mayor.

Sciortino was indicted on 11 felonies and 6 misdemeanors. He pleaded guilty to one felony and two misdemeanors. Additional indictments from a separate non-Oakhill event were equally consolidated.

Fallout from the indictment was responsible, in part, for Sciortino, a Democrat, losing his re-election bid in November 2014, six months after being indicted.

Ralph Meacham, who beat Sciortino, became the first Republican to win a nonjudicial countywide office in 30 years.

The indictment came a little more than four months after McNally, also a Democrat, began serving as Youngstown mayor.

They’ll be sentenced March 28.

Meanwhile, Yavorcik – who’s failed 2008 independent county prosecutor’s campaign was largely funded by Cafaro and two of his siblings – didn’t take a plea on the 12 felony counts he faces largely related to accusations about that election. His trial is set to start March 14.

As part of their plea deals, McNally and Sciortino have agreed to cooperate with prosecutors.

They join a growing list of local politicians who’ve been found guilty of crimes and are cooperating — including ex-Mahoning County Democratic Party Chairwoman Lisa Antonini, also a former county treasurer; ex-county Treasurer John Reardon; ex-state Rep. Ronald V. Gerberry; and ex-county Probate Court Judge Mark Belinky.

The group may be helpful in the other political corruption investigations in the Valley. But besides Cafaro, there really isn’t anyone left from the first Oakhill indictment.

When asked about Friday’s court proceedings, Joe Bell, a Cafaro Co. spokesman, said, “Since our company isn’t really involved in that particular litigation, we don’t have any kind of comments to make about it.”

And there’s the statute of limitations to consider.

The more time between the unsuccessful 2007 effort to stop the county from moving offices from Garland Plaza, owned by a Cafaro Co. subsidiary, to the county-owned Oakhill, the less likely it is that more indictments will be unsealed.

Besides, there aren’t that many people involved in the Oakhill conspiracy left to target.

The statute of limitations expired on John Zachariah, the former JFS director indicted in the first Oakhill case. Prosecutors contend in documents he was a key figure in trying to stop the move of his department from Garland, which has since been demolished, to Oakhill.

It’s also likely the statute of limitations has expired for Reardon in regards to

Oakhill conspiracy charges. His aforementioned guilt was for campaign finance incident separate from the conspiracy events.

As for Cafaro, it isn’t known if the statute of limitations has passed, and if not, how much longer it is.