UPDATE | Yavorcik admits he took campaign money from Flora Cafaro

CLEVELAND

Martin Yavorcik, the lone defendant in the Oakhill Renaissance Place criminal-corruption case to not plead guilty, admitted today he said he took campaign money without reporting it, told a friend he could fix a case and that he wasn't truthful about the reason he received $15,000 from Flora Cafaro.

But Yavorcik, a failed 2008 Mahoning County prosecutor candidate, said none of it can be used against him because he told law enforcement about those incidents while having "pocket immunity," which is a kind of informal immunity.

During nearly 90 minutes of questioning by Yavorcik, FBI agent Deane Hassman said he didn't need the defendant's statements.

The agent said bank records, campaign finance reports and secretly recorded tapes, among other things, provide the evidence and he knew about all of it before speaking three times with Yavorcik in 2010 and 2011.

Hassman also said he doesn't know of anyone in law enforcement who questioned Cafaro, who isn't charged with a crime, about the $15,000. The money was supposedly given as a legal retainer, but prosecutors contend it was part of a bribe to Yavorcik to take a poll of the 2008 election. Hassman said Yavorcik told him the actual use of the money when the defendant had immunity.

Hassman said the pocket immunity didn't prohibit him from providing Yavorcik 's statements to prosecutors, something he did with the Ohio Attorney General's Office in June or July 2012.

Yavorcik insists that violated his immunity deal and wants criminal charges against him dismissed.

Judge Janet R. Burnside of Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court, overseeing the case, is considering the issue. It's not clear if she'll rule during today's hearing.

Yavorcik 's trial is to start Monday.

Earlier today, the judge chastised prosecutors for being unprepared when presenting evidence it wants to use in the trial.

The hearing began shortly after 9 a.m. to consider certain evidence to be used against Yavorcik in a trial set to start Monday.

Among the evidence prosecutors want to use is a secretly taped recording of Yavorcik and others talking with Michael Morley, a former Mahoning County Democratic Party chairman, in 2008.

Judge Burnside said prosecutors could only establish that Morley gave legal advice. Prosecutors say the conversation shows Yavorcik promised to make a criminal investigation into the attempted obstruction of the purchase of Oakhill Renaissance Place by Mahoning County go away if he was elected county prosecutor in 2008 as part of an alleged conspiracy.

"You're not giving me evidence of a conspiracy," she said. "You're giving me a campaign promise."

Judge Burnside at one point yelled at prosecutors, "Prove it to me, prove it to me, I need evidence!"

She later said to prosecutors, "I get the impression that you folks haven't thought this through."

Yavorcik, an attorney defending himself, has insisted he had no interest in a plea bargain.

His two co-defendants - Youngstown Mayor John A. McNally and ex-Mahoning County Auditor Michael V. Sciortino - took deals before the start of the trial.

Prosecutors accuse Yavorcik with taking money from McNally; Sciortino; Lisa Antonini, the former Mahoning County Democratic Party chairwoman and county treasurer; and Anthony Cafaro Sr., the retired head of his family-owned Cafaro Co. mall development business.

In exchange, prosecutors say Yavorcik ran as an independent in 2008 for Mahoning County prosecutor so if he won, he wouldn't prosecute or investigate them. He lost by 38 percentage points to incumbent Democrat Paul J. Gains.

Prosecutors also said Yavorcik file false campaign finance reports.

Yavorcik faces 11 felonies - one count of engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity, one count of conspiracy, three counts of bribery, four counts of money laundering, and two counts of tampering with records.

Yavorcik contends prosecutors indicted him by improperly using statements he made to the FBI on three separate occasions between 2010 and 2011 against him. Yavorcik had immunity when making those statements. Prosecutors said they didn't violate that immunity, but Yavorcik said that's not true and the charges against him should be dismissed.

That part of the hearing started at 11 a.m.

Yavorcik, McNally and Sciortino were indicted May 14, 2014.

On Feb. 26, McNally and Sciortino pleaded guilty to reduced charges and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors. On that day, Yavorcik said he was ready to go to trial.

McNally pleaded guilty to four misdemeanors. He had faced 18 felonies and seven misdemeanors. Sciortino pleaded guilty to one felony and two misdemeanors. He faced 11 felonies and six misdemeanors. The two will be sentenced March 28.

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