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Youngstown mayor testifies in Oakhill case
CLEVELAND
Prosecutors in the Martin Yavorcik conspiracy/corruption trial aren’t focusing much of their case on the defendant – at least not yet.
Instead, they spent most of Wednesday and Thursday building a case to establish that a group of people – not including Yavorcik – conspired to stop or impede Mahoning County’s 2006 purchase of Oakhill Renaissance Place, a former hospital, and relocate its Department of Job and Family Services there from Garland Plaza, owned by a subsidiary of the Cafaro Co.
Prosecutors need to build the conspiracy case – and that parts happened in Cuyahoga County, where Yavorcik is being prosecuted, to establish it’s the proper venue – in order to then move to what they contend was the second phase of the conspiracy. That other part, they allege, is those involved in the first phase conspired to have Yavorcik run in 2008 as an independent candidate for Mahoning County prosecutor and win in order to make the investigation go away.
Yavorcik, who said he ran because he wanted the job, lost by 38 percentage points to incumbent Prosecutor Paul J. Gains, a Democrat. Yavorcik faces 11 felony charges, including engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity, conspiracy, bribery, money laundering and tampering with records.
Youngstown Mayor John A. McNally, who was a county commissioner in 2006, was questioned for 75 minutes Thursday by Leigh Bayer, an assistant Ohio attorney general, about meetings with Anthony Cafaro Sr., who was president of his family-owned shopping center business when the JFS move occurred.
Yavorcik wasn’t mentioned by McNally, who will resume testifying this morning.
Among those also slated to testify today include John Zachariah, a former JFS director; Paul Nick, the head of the Ohio Ethics Commission; Gains; and Linette Stratford, chief assistant county prosecutor.
McNally – one of Yavorcik’s co-defendants along with ex-Mahoning County Auditor Michael V. Sciortino – pleaded guilty on Feb. 26 to four misdemeanors in a deal.
The convictions are related to McNally faxing a confidential letter to the Ulmer & Berne law firm in Cleveland on July 13, 2006, from the county offering $75,000 to buy Oakhill. The firm represented Cafaro.
But on the witness stand Thursday, McNally said he didn’t “believe this was a confidential letter.”
He added: “I don’t recall being told not to provide the letter.”
McNally said he had numerous conversations with Cafaro about opposing the Oakhill purchase. They started Jan. 3, 2005, his first day as a county commissioner.
McNally started to discuss retaining legal counsel for himself, Sciortino and ex-county Treasurer John Reardon, but didn’t finish as the judge stopped the trial about 5 p.m.
J.J. Cafaro, Anthony’s brother and a retired Cafaro Co. executive vice president, testified for about 90 minutes Thursday. He was granted immunity by Judge Janet R. Burnside of Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court, who is presiding over the trial, at the request of prosecutors. Cafaro said he wouldn’t testify without immunity.
His testimony may prove valuable to prosecutors looking to establish a conspiracy because he said he was called into a meeting – it occurred July 13, 2006, according to prosecutors – by his brother at the Cafaro Co. headquarters on Belmont Avenue in Youngstown.
When he walked in, Cafaro said his brother; McNally; two Ulmer & Berne attorneys; James Dobran, Cafaro Co.’s chief litigation counsel; and a county official he couldn’t recall were discussing legal issues related to Oakhill.
J.J. Cafaro testified that he asked if his family’s company was permitted to pay the legal fees of McNally and other county officials opposed to the JFS move.
He initially declined to testify about the answer, but after a lengthy discussion with the jurors out of the courtroom, it was determined he was compelled to provide details.
Prosecutors said the two attorneys were Joseph Castrodale and Craig Miller, who are both no longer at the firm.
McNally, Sciortino and Reardon, all Democrats, received free legal services, paid by the Cafaros, from Taft, Stettinius & Hollister, another Cleveland law firm, prosecutors say.
Court documents filed in January 2015 by prosecutors contend Ohio Valley Mall, the Cafaro Co. subsidiary that owned Garland Plaza on Youngstown’s East Side, paid $1.46 million to law firms between 2006 and 2008, much for legal fees for McNally, Sciortino and Reardon.
Sciortino pleaded guilty on Feb. 26 to reduced charges for his involvement in the Oakhill matter. He and McNally will be sentenced March 28. Reardon was found guilty of ethics counts.
At that 2006, meeting, J.J. Cafaro said an attorney – prosecutors say it was Castrodale – told him about paying legal fees for the public officials, “Absolutely, we can do it. It’s done all the time.”
The attorney added that Cafaro testified, “It’s not unusual for attorneys to exchange work product while clients have like interests and [there’s] no problem sharing work product.”
Prosecutors have said that is illegal, and that Cafaro’s testimony puts his brother, who hasn’t been charged, in the conspiracy.
When asked if he was satisfied with the response from the attorney, Cafaro testified, “Yes, I had attorneys from big law firms tell me it was legal. I never gave it another thought.”
Prosecutors said Thursday that McNally would testify that Sciortino, Reardon and Zachariah were also at the meeting.
But McNally said he wasn’t sure any of those three were there. There was some discussion about Yavorcik.
The defendant, a lawyer defending himself, and J.J. Cafaro said they knew each other, but didn’t socialize. Cafaro said he contributed $40,000 to Yavorcik’s failed campaign at the request of his brother, Anthony Cafaro Sr., and because he didn’t think highly of Gains.
Anthony Sr. also contributed $40,000 to Yavorcik’s campaign, and the Cafaro’s sister, Flora, also gave $40,000.
Prosecutors say the $40,000 given to Yavorcik by Anthony Sr. was a bribe and the $40,000 from Flora – as well as an additional $15,000 – was money laundering. Yavorcik said the $40,000 donations were legal, and he reported them, and the $15,000 was a legal retainer.
Cafaro testified that he and his brother ask each other to give campaign contributions, and in some cases, the donor has no idea who is getting the money.
Cafaro’s brother and sister won’t be called as witnesses in this case. Law enforcement is still investigating Anthony Sr.
J.J. Cafaro said Flora is in failing health.
During cross-examination of Cafaro by Yavorcik, the witness said the two never discussed Oakhill or Ohio Valley Mall, and that $40,000 isn’t a lot of money to Cafaro.
To show how rich Cafaro is, Yavorcik got the witness to say he knows billionaire Donald Trump, the Republican presidential front-runner who lives on the same street as him in Palm Beach, Fla. Cafaro said his house there is worth more than $15 million, and that he has three other homes and his own airplane.
Also Thursday, Dobran testified that OVM paid about $18,000 in legal bills in 2007 to Zachariah.
Dobran, who also agreed to testify after he received immunity, said the Cafaro brothers and William A. Cafaro, Anthony Sr.’s oldest son and the company’s current co-president, were told OVM was paying those fees.
Prosecutors contend Zachariah perjured himself or made false statements under oath. The statute of limitations against Zachariah expired.
Leslie Sok, Anthony Cafaro Sr.’s longtime administrative assistant, spent close to an hour Thursday on the witness stand largely acknowledging notes taken by her boss of meetings and phone calls with Mahoning County public officials.
The notes used as evidence were primarily about keeping JFS at Garland Plaza.