43
No testimony yet tying Yavorcik to killing Oakhill probe
FBI agent: Anthony Cafaro Sr. is still under investigation
CLEVELAND
At its core, the charges facing Martin Yavorcik are that he ran in 2008 for Mahoning County prosecutor to kill a criminal investigation against his political allies, if he won, in exchange for support and money.
Several witnesses, including four on Tuesday, testified at his corruption/conspiracy trial the supposed quid pro quo was their impression of what Yavorcik did.
No one, however, including FBI special agent Deane Hassman, who investigates political corruption in the Mahoning Valley and testified Tuesday, said Yavorcik, who lost that election, came right out and said he’d terminate the Oakhill Renaissance Place criminal-corruption investigation if elected.
Also, Hassman added businessman Anthony Cafaro Sr. is still under investigation, although he has not been charged in any way in the Oakhill case.
When asked if Yavorcik ever said he’d stop the investigation, Hassman testified, “That type of language, no.” But on secretly recorded tapes, Yavorcik says he planned on taking care of his allies, some of who were longtime friends and were being investigated.
Yavorcik faces 11 felonies including engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity, conspiracy, bribery, tampering with records and money laundering.
The three other witnesses who testified for the prosecution said it was their impression in 2008 that Yavorcik would quash the investigation.
Those three are Lisa Antonini, ex-Mahoning County Democratic Party chairwoman and a former county treasurer; former county Treasurer John Reardon; and Kurt Welsh, who was Antonini’s boyfriend in 2008 and had his own legal problems, including drunken driving and assault.
Prosecutors say Yavorcik took money in 2008 from Antonini; Reardon; then county Commissioner John A. McNally, now Youngstown mayor; then Auditor Michael V. Sciortino, who lost his seat in the 2014 election while under indictment; Anthony Cafaro Sr., then the president of his family-owned Cafaro Co. shopping complex business; and Flora Cafaro, Anthony Sr.’s sister and a Cafaro Co. executive.
Reardon testified about talking to Yavorcik in which “the tone of the meeting was this is good. If you’re elected, this Oakhill [investigation] would go away.”
In response to a question about if he helped Yavorcik get elected prosecutor to get rid of the Oakhill investigation, Reardon said, “Of course.”
McNally and Sciortino, who were Yavorcik’s co-defendants, pleaded guilty Feb. 26 to reduced charges in the Oakhill investigation and will be sentenced Monday.
Antonini and Reardon were found guilty of criminal charges not related to Oakhill.
Neither Cafaro has been charged. But on the witness stand, Hassman said, “Anthony Cafaro Sr. is still under investigation.”
The statement was the last comment made by Hassman during about 90 minutes of testimony given by him while questioned by prosecutor Dan Kasaris, a senior assistant Ohio attorney general.
Yavorcik, an attorney who is defending himself, said while cross-examining Hassman for about 20 more minutes, “It’s 2016, and you’re still investigating Anthony Cafaro?”
“Indeed, I am,” Hassman responded. “I’m seeking people’s cooperation in that investigation.”
Hassman said he’s a member of “Operation Restore Faith,” a law-enforcement program that investigates public corruption in Mahoning, Trumbull, Cuyahoga and Franklin counties. His focus is on Mahoning and Trumbull counties.
The Cafaros, their company and its subsidiaries, attorneys from large Cleveland-based law firms, and the current and former officeholders – who are all Democrats – previously mentioned are part of an alleged criminal enterprise, according to a May 14, 2014, indictment unsealed in Cuyahoga County.
Prosecutors contend the members, most of who are unindicted co-conspirators, allegedly tried to stop or impede the county from purchasing Oakhill, the former Forum Health Southside Medical Center.
The county moved its Department of Job and Family Services from Garland Plaza, a property on Youngstown’s East Side owned by Ohio Valley Mall, a Cafaro Co. subsidiary, to Oakhill.
The county paid $440,000 annually in rent at Garland.
Yavorcik had nothing to do with Oakhill.
Prosecutors, however, contend the Cafaros and politicians had Yavorcik run as an independent in 2008 against incumbent county Prosecutor Paul J. Gains, a Democrat, in order to stop a criminal investigation into their activities. Gains, who initiated the probe, beat Yavorcik by 38 percentage points.
Yavorcik said he was running because Gains was a bad prosecutor and “I didn’t like him.”
Antonini testified she didn’t want Gains re-elected not only to stop the Oakhill investigation, but also because “he played politics with his office.”
While on the witness stand Monday, Gains said he doesn’t play politics as prosecutor.
Antonini, who testified for 2 Ω hours between Monday and Tuesday, said she never told Yavorcik she did anything wrong related to Oakhill or that she illegally took money from Anthony Cafaro Sr. that led to her felony conviction.
“You repeatedly told me you didn’t do anything [illegal] with the Oakhill case,” Yavorcik said to Antonini, who agreed.
The prosecution finished its case Tuesday with Yavorcik calling witnesses today.
Among those expected to testify for Yavorcik are Sciortino and Leo Jennings III, a political consultant who was involved in Yavorcik’s failed 2008 prosecutor bid.
Jennings was convicted in 2010 of improper compensation and filing a false disclosure statement while communications director for Marc Dann, who resigned in the wake of an ethics scandal when he was the state’s attorney general.
While investigating potential political corruption related to Oakhill, Hassman testified he reviewed Yavorcik’s 2008 campaign finance reports.
The Vindicator reported in December 2008 that three members of the Cafaro family – Anthony Sr., Flora, and their brother, J.J. – each contributed $40,000 to Yavorcik’s campaign, the largest campaign contributions given to a Mahoning County candidate in at least the past two decades, and likely ever.
Hassman also testified that Yavorcik received $62,200 in “loans” before the $120,000 came late in the campaign from the Cafaros.
Reardon said he recommended Yavorcik borrow the money to show he was a strong candidate.
Most of that money came from Phillip Rosemann, who lived in the St. Louis area in 2008 and had connections to some in the Valley and gave $40,000.
He was paid back after Yavorcik received the $120,000.
Hassman said he interviewed Yavorcik at his Boardman home March 2, 2010.
During that interview, Hassman said Yavorcik told him the public officials who backed him “had ulterior motives,” wanting him to end the Oakhill probe.
Also in court when asked by Kasaris, Hassman identified numerous unnamed people in the Oakhill indictment.
Their names are in some court filings, but this was the first time they were verbally named.
“Businessman 1” is Anthony Cafaro Sr. “Businessman 2” is J.J. Cafaro, while “Businesswoman 1” is Flora Cafaro. Also, “Business 1” is the Cafaro Co., and “Business 2” is Ohio Valley Mall.
One of the three bribery charges facing Yavorcik is for taking $2,500 from Antonini’s campaign fund during the 2008 race.
Antonini said it was a campaign contribution with Yavorcik calling it a loan.
Yavorcik had the canceled check as evidence that shows Antonini wrote loan on it.
The money, however, was never repaid by Yavorcik’s campaign.
Yavorcik’s campaign did pay back a $809.63 check to Antonini after his failed bid for prosecutor.
“If you’re allegedly bribing me, why am I returning money to you after the election?” Yavorcik said to her.
Welsh, Antonini’s boyfriend in 2008, testified he worked for Yavorcik’s campaign with the hope that if he won, Yavorcik would help him with various drunken-driving charges he had pending and stop the Oak-hill investigation.
“I felt they were being wrongfully pursued,” Welsh said of the Oakhill defendants.
He called the Oakhill investigation “a witch hunt.”
Reardon also said he contributed $2,500 from his campaign fund to Yavorcik and, like Antonini, it wasn’t a loan and he didn’t expect to be repaid. Again, Yavorcik showed a canceled check from Reardon with a notation that it was a loan.
In addition to the $40,000 he took from Flora Cafaro, there was testimony Tuesday about $15,000 he received from her.
Yavorcik said the $15,000 was a legal retainer, but prosecutors call it a bribe that the defendant used to pay for a poll to see if he could beat Gains.
The poll cost about $15,000. It stated Yavorcik could beat Gains if he raised at least $100,000.
Hassman testified that during his March 2, 2010, interview with Yavorcik, the latter said he asked for $100,000 from Flora, who said no.
Instead, she gave the family business $15,000, a Cafaro Co. subsidiary wrote a check for that amount to Yavorcik for a legal retainer for work for Flora’s son’s gym, Hassman said.
The retainer was never used, and Yavorcik gave the $15,000 to his campaign for the poll, Hassman said.