Oakhill indictments reduced by 30 to 53 for 3 defendants

CLEVELAND

Prosecutors in the Oakhill Renaissance Place criminal-corruption case are significantly reducing the number of counts in the indictment, but they say it won’t impact their efforts to convict the three defendants.

The original indictment unsealed May 14, 2014, had 73 counts, but as some of the charges list all of the defendants, the three faced a total of 83 counts.

Now, the state’s motion to amend reduces those numbers to 45 counts with the three facing a total of 53 counts.

“We streamlined the charges by removing” similar counts for the same alleged crimes, said Dan Tierney, spokesman for the Ohio Attorney General’s Office. That office is prosecuting the case with the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor’s Office.

Prosecutors say the strategy is to keep the strongest charges in the indictment.

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

The nearly 40-percent reduction in charges also indicates the three will be prosecuted at the same time. There was talk that prosecutors would attempt to split the defendants to have two or even three separate trials.

Read more about this latest development in the case in Friday's Vindicator or on Vindy.com.