Saturday, March 19, 2016
CLEVELAND
Though Youngstown Mayor John A. McNally settled his criminal charges by taking a plea three weeks ago, he appears to be the one on trial.
Witnesses testifying at the trial of Martin Yavorcik, one of McNally’s co-defendants in the Oakhill Renaissance Place criminal-corruption case, on Friday answered numerous questions about McNally with some refuting what the mayor said during his statements in court Thursday and Friday.
McNally pleaded guilty Feb. 26 to four misdemeanors related to him faxing a confidential letter of Mahoning County’s proposal to buy Oakhill, when he was a commissioner. That happened July 18, 2006, with McNally sending the information to a lawyer with Ulmer & Berne, a Cleveland law firm that had Anthony Cafaro Sr. as a client.
Cafaro, who hasn’t been charged, was president of the Cafaro Co., his family-owned shopping center company, at the time.
The county wanted its Department of Job and Family Services to leave Garland Plaza, owned by a Cafaro Co. subsidiary, and relocate it to Oakhill, the former Forum Health Southside Medical Center that the county purchased for $75,000 in 2006.
An indictment contends numerous people formed a criminal enterprise, including McNally and Cafaro – but not Yavorcik – and conspired to impede or stop the JFS move and the county’s purchase of Oakhill.
As part of the alleged conspiracy, members of the enterprise are accused of bribing Yavorcik to run for county prosecutor in 2008 as an independent against incumbent Democrat Paul J. Gains to make the Oakhill investigation go away. Yavorcik lost to Gains by 38 percentage points in that election.
Gains had contacted the Ohio Ethics Commission on Nov. 1, 2007, about concerns he had about potential illegal activity related to the Oakhill fight, said Paul Nick, the commission’s executive director as a prosecutors’ witness Friday.
McNally pleaded guilty Feb. 26 to four misdemeanors and will be sentenced March 28. As part of his plea deal, McNally agreed to testify in Yavorcik’s trial.
McNally said Thursday during testimony that he didn’t recall anyone – including Linette Stratford, chief assistant county prosecutor – telling him the letter was confidential.
On the stand Friday, Stratford said she reminded everyone in an executive session in 2006 that the letter was confidential. Stratford said she did that because she along with the two other commissioners – Anthony Traficanti and David Ludt – “were particularly concerned” about McNally’s relationship with Cafaro.
“I said, ‘John, (this is) confidential,’ and he said, ‘I know, I know,’”
Stratford said during her Friday testimony. “I was a little bit skeptical.”
Stratford testified for 50 minutes and will return to the stand Monday.
Gains is also expected to testify Monday.
McNally testified for more than three hours between Thursday and Friday. He was asked about legal fees related to lawsuits to stop the Oakhill purchase. He acknowledged Friday receiving legal assistance at no cost to him in 2006 from Ulmer & Berne.
Prosecutors showed McNally numerous pieces of correspondence between him and attorneys for Ulmer & Berne.
“Ulmer & Berne was assisting me and I wasn’t paying them,” McNally said.
McNally, then county Auditor Michael V. Sciortino – who also took a plea to one felony and two misdemeanors on Feb. 26 – and then county Treasurer John Reardon, all Democrats, wanted to stop the purchase of Oakhill.
“I was not paying the Ulmer attorneys,” he testified.
When asked who did, McNally said he assumed it was the Cafaro Co. because the firm was retained by the shopping center company to stop the Oakhill sale.
The county was planning to relocate JFS from Garland Plaza, owned by a Cafaro subsidiary, to Oakhill after it purchased the latter - which it did. The county was paying $449,000 annually in rent at Garland on Youngstown’s East Side.
McNally, Sciortino and Reardon were represented in 2006 by Taft Stettinius & Hollister, also a Cleveland law firm. Taft billed $22,477 for its work.
McNally said he didn’t pay the fee, and didn’t know if anyone paid it.
When asked to estimate the Ulmer fee, McNally said, “It would be substantially less than Taft.”
Leigh Bayer, an assistant Ohio attorney general, questioned that response saying Ulmer did more work than Taft. McNally disagreed.
Nick, who investigated this matter, said the Cafaro Co. paid Taft’s fee.
Court documents filed a year ago by prosecutors state Cafaro Co. paid $876,140 to Ulmer, including legal work for the three county officials.
It’s difficult to say how much of Ulmer’s bill was for the three, prosecutors said.
Also, McNally testified that Ulmer and Taft “worked on a similar interest,” but it wasn’t a “co-counsel relationship.”
But Bruce L. Waterhouse Jr. – an attorney who worked for Taft in 2006 and represented McNally, Sciortino and Reardon – testified Friday that the two firms were co-counsels.
“Our firm was cooperating or collaborating with the Ulmer & Berne firm,” Waterhouse said. “The Ulmer & Berne client (Cafaro) had the same objective albeit for different reasons.”
He also said, “We were sharing strategies for the case.”
John Zachariah, who was JFS director in 2006, testified with immunity Friday that Cafaro paid his legal bills – estimated by prosecutors to be about $15,000 – related to the Oakhill investigation.
Yavorcik, who refused a plea, faces 11 felonies with prosecutors contending he was bribed to run for county prosecutor in 2008 and if he won, make a criminal investigation into Oakhill go away. He strongly denies the charge, saying Gains was a bad prosecutor.
McNally testified that he “felt there was a fair amount of politics involved” by Gains when he launched the criminal probe.
Prosecutors are focusing their attention on McNally and Cafaro to build the conspiracy case and then move to Yavorcik’s supposed part.
Prosecutors said they expect to be done calling their witnesses by Tuesday.
In essentially the only part of Friday’s testimony that had to do with Yavorcik, an attorney defending himself, he asked McNally if he ever bribed him, paid him cash or talked about terminating the investigation.
McNally said Yavorcik didn’t do any of that.
Yavorcik has strongly denied the accusations and prosecutors have yet to put a witness on the stand who’s said that.
However, court documents show that Lisa Antonini, a former county Democratic chairwoman and county treasurer, will testify that she gave Yavorcik $2,500 during the 2008 campaign that was a bribe.
Businessman Bruce Zoldan also testified Friday that in 2008, Cafaro asked him to make a contribution to Yavorcik’s campaign. Zoldan declined because of his friendship with Gains.
“It was well known (Cafaro) didn’t like Mr. Gains and wanted a new prosecutor,” Zoldan said.
Zoldan said that didn’t impact his friendship and business relationship with Cafaro.
During questioning from Yavorcik, Zoldan said Cafaro’s company loaned him money over the years including $5 million in “the last couple of years.”