YAVORCIK TRIAL | No decision from jury today
CLEVELAND — The jury deliberating the 10 felony counts facing Martin Yavorcik didn't make a decision today.
The jury began discussing the evidence at 10:30 a.m. and finished about 4 p.m. today.
They'll return at 9:15 a.m. Friday.
Judge Janet R. Burnside of Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court, who is overseeing this trial, gives jurors discretion when deliberating. But she said if they don't reach a decision by Friday around 5 p.m., the jurors wouldn't meet on the weekend.
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 say Yavorcik ran as an independent in the 2008 Mahoning County prosecutor race against incumbent Democrat Paul J. Gains to put an end to a criminal investigation of Yavorcik's political allies.
The investigation was related to his allies' efforts in 2006 to stop or impede Mahoning County's purchase of Oakhill Renaissance Place, the former Forum Health Southside Medical Center.
The county moved its Department of Job and Family Services to Oakhill from the Garland Plaza, owned by a Cafaro Co. subsidiary. The county had paid $449,000 annually in rent at Garland.
Yavorcik said he ran because he believed Gains was a bad prosecutor.