YAVORCIK TRIAL | Antonini: Electing Yavorcik would "kill the Oakhill investigation"

CLEVELAND — Ex-Mahoning County Democratic Party Chairwoman Lisa Antonini testified today that she wanted Martin Yavorcik to be elected in 2008 as county prosecutor to "kill the Oakhill investigation."

Antonini, also an ex-county treasurer, repeatedly said — upon questioning from Dan Kasaris, the trial's lead prosecutor — that she worked on Yavorcik's failed campaign because if he won she and others wouldn't have to worry about the investigation.

Incumbent Prosecutor Paul J. Gains, a Democrat, had initiated the investigation into claims that county officials and Anthony Cafaro Sr., the former president of the Cafaro Co., tried to illegally impede or stop the county from moving its Department of Job and Family Services from a building owned by a Cafaro Co. subsidiary to Oakhill.

The latter is the former Forum Health Southside Medical Center the county purchased in 2006.

Cafaro hasn't been charged. Youngstown Mayor John A. McNally in his previous capacity as a county commissioner, and ex-Auditor Michael V. Sciortino took plea deals. Antonini and ex-Treasurer John Reardon pleaded to counts not related to Oakhill.

Antonini, who was under investigation in 2008, said during her nearly two hours of testimony today that getting Gains out of the prosecutor's office and replacing him with Yavorcik would end the investigation.

Yavorcik, an attorney defending himself, faces 11 felonies. He didn't get the opportunity to question Antonini today. He will do so Tuesday.