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Attorneys for two Oakhill defendants want access to a sealed Cafaro case
Defendants claim files deal with grand jury testimony, jurisdiction
YOUNGSTOWN
Attorneys for two of the Oakhill Renaissance Place criminal-corruption case’s defendants filed a motion seeking access to a sealed case connected to their clients in the 7th District Court of Appeals involving Anthony Cafaro Sr. and his family-owned business.
All the records – except for the names of the parties and their attorneys, and docket filings that don’t provide many specifics – in that case in the Youngstown-based court and two other cases that originated in the 8th District Court of Appeals in Cleveland are under court seal. The cases have remained secret and have been appealed to the Ohio Supreme Court.
Court dockets refer to the cases as “In re: grand jury proceedings state of Ohio v. John Doe, et al" and Cafaro and the Ohio Valley Mall Co., a subsidiary of his family-owned Cafaro Co., are specifically listed in the appeals to the Supreme Court as the appellees.
Based on statements in the docket of the 7th District appeal to the Supreme Court from Matthew E. Meyer, an assistant prosecutor with the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor’s Office, the cases deal with grand jury testimony and jurisdiction of this case.
He wrote: “The underlying proceedings which led to this appeal involved the presentation of evidence to grand juries in both Mahoning and Cuyahoga counties.”
An Oct. 6, 2015, docket entry in the 8th District case refers to “an order denying a motion to quash a grand jury subpoena and ordering a party to testify and/or produce documents.”
These three appeals could be related to the Oakhill case set to start Feb. 29 in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court, according to a motion filed by attorneys for Youngstown Mayor John A. McNally and ex-Mahoning County Auditor Michael V. Sciortino to the 7th District seeking access to documents in the Cafaro case there.
“All public access to the docket for [the 7th District case] has been restricted, or would appear to be restricted, as a case search for this particular case reveals the following, ‘No matches found,’” wrote Lynn Maro, McNally’s attorney, and John B. Juhasz, Sciortino’s attorney.
“Such a revelation is extremely unusual, especially given the open public access provided by the Ohio Supreme Court to online dockets,” they wrote.
The two contend the court cases are public records and descriptions of the documents should be available.
Dan Tierney, a spokesman for the Ohio Attorney General’s office, which is prosecuting the Oak- hill case with Cuyahoga County, said the filing by attorneys for Sciortino and McNally “is another attempt to delay the start of the trial. We have provided all related discovery [evidence] in our possession.”
In July 2015, The Vindicator reported on the Ohio Supreme Court granting a temporary stay in the “John Doe” case requested by Anthony Cafaro Sr., the retired head of the Cafaro Co., and Ohio Valley Mall, the company’s subsidiary that owned Garland Plaza. Cafaro, his family’s parent company, and OVM are all unindicted co-conspirators in the alleged Oakhill case’s criminal enterprise.
Maro and Juhasz wrote that “the collection of lawyers involved in the pending Ohio Supreme Court cases seems a coincidence beyond all coincidences – and, though beyond the scope of this motion, the same collection of lawyers appear in the two 8th District cases and the appeals.” On the other side, they wrote, “are the lawyers who represent Anthony Cafaro, his Cafaro family members, and his business.”
The attorneys wrote that their clients “are on trial for their liberty and their reputations. If there are arguments, if there is information or evidence, if there are court rulings that relate to either the appointment of the special prosecutors, transfer of records and documents from Mahoning County or have some impact upon, the process of obtaining the indictment under which these applicants now find themselves, applicants are entitled to that information.”
Along with attorney Martin Yavorcik, McNally and Sciortino, both Democrats, face a total of 53 criminal counts including engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity, conspiracy, bribery, perjury, money laundering and tampering with records. They’ve pleaded not guilty.
An indictment accuses the three of being part of a criminal enterprise to stop or impede the relocation of a Mahoning County agency from Garland Plaza, owned by a Cafaro Co. subsidiary, to Oakhill Renaissance Place, the former Forum Health Southside Medical Center owned by the county.
The Ohio Valley Mall, the subsidiary, received $440,000 a year in rent from the county to house the Department of Job and Family Services.
The three defendants have filed motions to dismiss the May 2014 indictments contending Cuyahoga County isn’t the proper location for the cases. Judge Janet R. Burnside, who is overseeing the trial, has denied those motions.