28 counts dropped against Oakhill defendants

CLEVELAND — Prosecutors in the Oakhill Renaissance Place criminal-corruption case filed a motion today to eliminate 28 of the 73 counts in the indictment against the three defendants.

The original indictment had 73 counts, but as some of those charges list all three defendants, the trio faced a total of 83 counts.

Now, the indictment has 45 counts and the trio face a total of 53 counts.

The motion was done at the request of Judge Janet R. Burnside of Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court, who wanted prosecutors to reduce the counts to streamline the case.

The reductions were of counts that are similar to others that remain in the indictment, said Dan Tierney, spokesman for the Ohio Attorney General. That office is prosecuting the case with the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor’s Office.

Judge Burnside will have a pretrial hearing Friday in Cleveland to discuss the state’s motion to amend the indictment and to work out a schedule for the case that’s to start March 1.

The defendants are Youngstown Mayor John A. McNally in his previous capacity as Mahoning County commissioner, former county Auditor Michael V. Sciortino, and attorney Martin Yavorcik, a failed 2008 county prosecutor candidate.

In today’s filing, prosecutors sought to dismiss a conspiracy count that all three faced.

In individual counts, prosecutors want to dismiss one count each of bribery, theft in office, perjury, as well as three counts of tampering with records, and two counts of unlawful interest of a public official or employee in McNally’s case.

Prosecutors seek to dismiss two counts each of tampering with records and perjury against Sciortino, and 15 counts of tampering with records against Yavorcik.

The indictment accuses the three of being part of a criminal enterprise to stop or impede the relocation of a county agency from a building owned by a Cafaro Co. subsidiary to Oakhill Renaissance Place, the former Forum Health Southside Medical Center owned by the county. The indictment accuses the three of benefiting from being involved in the alleged enterprise. The three have pleaded not guilty.

For the complete story, read Friday’s Vindicator and Vindy.com