Sentence must be deterrent to others, judge tells ex-auditor Sciortino

YOUNGSTOWN

A visiting judge said she just couldn’t let former Mahoning County Auditor Michael V. Sciortino “get away” with his repeated illegal use of county computers.

“You have to be punished because every county employee is going to be looking at this and [saying], ‘Hey, he got a slap on the wrist and I can keep doing the same thing I’ve been doing and [nothing] happens,’” Judge Patricia A. Cosgrove said today as she sentenced Sciortino to four to six months incarceration at a halfway house.

Sciortino was led out of the county courtroom in handcuffs by sheriff’s deputies at the conclusion of the sentencing hearing.

John B. Juhasz, his attorney, refused to comment to The Vindicator.

Sciortino, a Democrat from Austintown, pleaded guilty April 11 to two counts of unauthorized use of computer or telecommunications property – one is a felony and the other is a misdemeanor – as part of a plea deal he made Feb. 26 to resolve this case and one in Cuyahoga County.

The latter was for his involvement in the Oakhill Renaissance Place corruption scandal.

Judge Janet R. Burnside of Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court sentenced Sciortino on March 28 to one year’s probation – he has to report only twice – after he pleaded guilty to a felony count of having an unlawful interest in a public contract, and two misdemeanors: falsification and receiving or soliciting improper compensation.

Judge Cosgrove, retired from Summit County Common Pleas Court, said probation will be different for Sciortino in the case she oversaw.

Read more about the case in Friday's Vindicator or on Vindy.com