Thursday, March 24, 2016
CLEVELAND
A jury will begin deliberations today on 10 felonies facing Martin Yavorcik, a failed 2008 Mahoning County prosecutor candidate.
During his closing arguments, Yavorcik said he is the victim of a vengeful prosecution that stems from issues he and his political allies in 2008 have with county Prosecutor Paul J. Gains, the Democratic incumbent who soundly beat him.
“It’s not a conspiracy; it’s a political campaign,” Yavorcik said during his 45-minute statement to the jury.
Yavorcik said Wednesday of politics: “It’s a dirty, nasty business.” He also said, “It is disgusting, but I didn’t commit a crime.”
Matthew E. Meyer, a Cuyahoga County assistant prosecutor, said during his 40-minute closing that “the filth of political corruption is something the defendant got used to.” He also said, “That’s Youngstown politics.”
Yavorcik later said in his closing that “this case has a stench, and it’s coming from the government.”
Because of this prosecution, Yavorcik said, “My name is mud in Mahoning County – mud. Mission accomplished.”
Meyer described Yavorcik as “a bought-and-paid-for man by one of the richest people in Ohio to get rid of an investigation.”
Meyer said the rich man in question is Anthony Cafaro Sr., the former president of his family-owned Cafaro Co. One criminal count each of bribery and money laundering against Yavorcik accuses him of illegally taking $135,500 from Cafaro, his brother, J.J., and his sister, Flora.
Prosecutors contend Anthony Cafaro Sr. along with a group of Mahoning County public officials illegally tried to stop or impede the county from purchasing Oakhill Renaissance Place, the former Forum Health Southside Medical Center, and relocating the county’s Department of Job and Family Services to Oakhill in 2006 from Garland Plaza, a building owned by a Cafaro subsidiary.
Yavorcik was not a part of the Oakhill investigation. But in order to provide justification for some of the most serious charges against Yavorcik, prosecutors had to establish that original alleged conspiracy.
That group of public officials that helped Yavorcik’s independent campaign in 2008 while under investigation related to Oakhill, were: then county Commissioner John A. McNally, now Youngstown mayor; then Auditor Michael V. Sciortino, who lost a re-election bid in 2014; then Treasurer Lisa Antonini, who was also the county Democratic Party chairwoman; and former Treasurer John Reardon, all Democrats.
Yavorcik was “the last man to turn out the lights; the cleanup crew,” Meyer said.
McNally and Sciortino, Yavorcik’s co-defendants, took plea deals Feb. 26 and will be sentenced Monday. Antonini and Reardon were convicted of charges not related to Oakhill.
Also, Sciortino took a deal to plead to one felony and one misdemeanor in Mahoning County. He’ll officially plead guilty and be sentenced three days after his Monday sentencing in Cuyahoga County.
Prosecutors contend Yavorcik ran for Mahoning County prosecutor to kill the Oakhill investigation in exchange for money and support. Yavorcik said he ran because he wanted to be prosecutor and thought Gains was “evil, vindictive” and targeted specific public officials.
“The investigation was for Gains to get his political enemies,” Yavorcik said.
Dan Kasaris, a senior assistant Ohio attorney general and the trial’s lead prosecutor, said during his hour-long closing statement, that unlike Yavorcik, Gains “is not corruptible.”
He added that if Yavorcik had defeated Gains in 2008, McNally and Sciortino “wouldn’t have been charged.”
He added: “A prosecutor taking money to kill an investigation. Think about that.”
Gains, who initiated the Oakhill investigation in 2007, beat Yavorcik by 38 percentage points in the 2008 general election.
A lot of the prosecutors’ closing arguments focused on Anthony Cafaro Sr.
Meyer said Cafaro was “the string-puller” and called him “Mr. Big” seven times during his closing.
“Tony is behind the whole thing,” he added.
Kasaris referred to Cafaro as a “puppet master.”
The prosecutors and Yavorcik said Cafaro is a “billionaire.”
Yavorcik, an attorney defending himself, said prosecutors are “jealous of [rich people’s] wealth” so they investigate them.
He added that “the government wants you to believe that a billionaire did all of this, these shenanigans, all these dirty deeds for $449,000 a year in rent for a building on the East Side of Youngstown.”
Cafaro hasn’t been charged. But Deane Hassman, an FBI special agent, said Wednesday that Cafaro is “still under investigation.”
The Vindicator reported in December 2008 that Anthony Sr., Flora and 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.
The money is reported as contributions, but prosecutors say they were bribes to stop the Oakhill investigation if Yavorcik was elected.
Anthony Sr. also gave $500 to Yavorcik for a campaign fundraising event.
Also, Flora gave a $15,000 Cafaro Co. check to Yavorcik. The defendant claims it was a legal retainer with prosecutors calling that a bribe.
The money is shown on Yavorcik’s campaign finance reports as an in-kind contribution from him. It was used for a poll.
Yavorcik tried in 2014 to amend his 2008 federal tax return to show the $15,000 as income, but the IRS refused to accept the new filing. Meyer said Wednesday that Yavorcik made about $36,000 in 2008.
Yavorcik also received campaign cash he never reported on finance reports filed with the Mahoning County Board of Elections, Kasaris said.
“The people who ‘bribed’ me, all of their money is reported,” Yavorcik said. “But the times I forgot small contributions, I get indicted. Do you report bribes?”
Yavorcik “didn’t amend his campaign reports,” Kasaris said. “If he did, we wouldn’t be here.”
In addition to the unreported $1,600 in cash to pay for people to work at polling locations for Yavorcik and the Cafaro money, prosecutors also said he falsely reported money given to him by Antonini, Reardon and Sciortino as campaign loans.
The jury will start deliberating today after Judge Janet R. Burnside of Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court, overseeing the trial, gives them instructions.
Earlier Wednesday, Judge Burnside rejected Yavorcik’s arguments to dismiss the indictment against him and rejected his efforts to individually drop all but one of the 11 felony counts he faces.
Yavorcik didn’t call any witnesses.
Prosecutors spent five-and-a-half days and had 26 witnesses testify on their behalf. They concluded their case Tuesday.
No witness testified in this trial that Yavorcik ever directly said he would stop the investigation if elected prosecutor. But some said it was understood that would happen. There’s also a secretly recorded tape in which Yavorcik said he agreed to take care of his friends under investigation related to Oakhill.
“He made a deal if he wins to make this investigation go away,” Kasaris said.
Yavorcik is charged with one count of engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity, one count of conspiracy, three counts of bribery, two counts of tampering with records, and three counts of money laundering.
Prosecutors on Thursday dropped a money laundering charge that accused Yavorcik of improperly taking money for his 2008 campaign from McNally. The charge couldn’t be substantiated during the trial.