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OAKHILL CRIMINAL CASE : Charges against 3 trimmed by 40%
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 purported 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.
The reductions of criminal counts and the eliminations of paragraphs in the charge of engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity were done after an order last month from Judge Janet R. Burnside of Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court, who is overseeing the case.
She ordered that work be done by today’s pretrial hearing, though she didn’t specify how many counts were to be cut.
Judge Burnside could act on the motion to amend the indictment as soon as today. Also, she is expected to work out a schedule today with attorneys on both sides for the trial that’s to start March 1.
In Thursday’s motion, Dan Kasaris, a senior assistant attorney general and the case’s lead prosecutor, seeks to dismiss a catch-all conspiracy count against the three. A second conspiracy charge against them remains.
In individual counts, prosecutors seek 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 by a public official or employee in McNally’s case.
Prosecutors also asked the judge to dismiss two counts each of tampering with records and perjury against Sciortino, and 15 counts of tampering with records against Yavorcik.
Yavorcik saw the largest reduction in charges going from 27 to 11. The tampering with records in the indictment against Yavorcik were for purportedly filing false campaign finance reports from October 2008 to January 2014. The two tampering charges that remain are related to his 2008 pre-general- election report.
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. They have pleaded not guilty.
Mark Lavelle, Yavorcik’s attorney, said reduction in charges isn’t a surprise but declined to comment further.
Lynn Maro, McNally’s attorney, and John B. Juhasz, Sciortino’s attorney, couldn’t be reached Thursday by The Vindicator to comment.
The motion to amend the indictment removes John Doe No. 3 and John Doe No. 4 – court documents show them to be ex-Youngstown Mayor George M. McKelvey and Michael Morley, former Mahoning County Democratic Party chairman, respectively – as members of the criminal enterprise.
Both are on the prosecutors’ potential witness list.
The amendment also eliminates numerous allegations against John Zachariah, who served as director of Mahoning County Job and Family Services when the agency relocated from Garland Plaza, owned by the Cafaro subsidiary, to Oakhill.
The indictment had accused him of accepting $30,000 from Businessman 1 – identified in court documents as Anthony Cafaro Sr., the former head of his family-owned real-estate business – and the Cafaro Co. for legal services as well as tampering with records to stop the relocation.
All that remains is an accusation that Zachariah perjured himself or made false statements.
The statute of limitations to prosecute Zachariah expired. He is also on the prosecutors’ potential witness list.
Also removed from the indictment are accusations that members of the criminal enterprise engaged in “racketeering activity.”
Meanwhile, Juhasz and Maro filed a motion Thursday to again dismiss the charges against their clients, Sciortino and McNally, respectively.
This motion contends the special prosecutor in the first Oakhill trial – that case was filed in July 2010 and dismissed 12 months later with the right to indict again – didn’t have the authority to have the attorney general and Cuyahoga County prosecutor offices take over the case.
That authority rests with the Mahoning County Common Pleas Court, and no judge ever authorized the appointment of additional special prosecutors, they wrote in the motion to dismiss.
At least three other attempts by attorneys for the defendants to have the case dismissed on other grounds have been rejected by Judge Burnside.