Former aide to state Sen. Capri Cafaro pleads guilty to thefts

Staff report

WARREN

Jonathan M. Wike Jr., former district director for state Sen. Capri Cafaro’s Warren office, has pleaded guilty to stealing $75,000 from Cafaro and $13,331 from his grandmother, who was 89.

Wike, 30, of Stepney Street, Niles, appeared Thursday before Judge Ronald Rice of Trumbull County Common Pleas Court and pleaded guilty to grand theft and attempted theft from a person in a protected class. His grandmother’s age puts her in a protected class, prosecutors said.

Paying back the $75,000 that was taken will be a condition of Wike’s probation, Judge Rice said.

Wike’s grandmother and mother, who both were victims of the attempted theft, provided letters saying they did not seek restitution, said Chris Becker, an assistant county prosecutor.

Wike will be sentenced in about four weeks, after the county’s Adult Probation Department conducts a pre-sentence investigation.

Both charges are fourth-degree felonies, punishable by up to 18 months in prison, but prison is not presumed necessary or mandatory.

Wike was making about $35,000 per year working for Cafaro, of Liberty, D-32nd.

She fired him in July 2015 after allegations surfaced that he had taken money from a personal account Cafaro set up to pay for the operations of Cafaro’s Warren office.

She hired Wike in 2008 to be her district director, operating out of a ninth-floor office at 108 Main Ave. NW, the Huntington Bank building.