New indictment against ex-Niles mayor includes former city auditor

By JORDAN COHEN

news@vindy.com

WARREN

A Trumbull County grand jury indicted a former longtime auditor for the city of Niles in connection with the theft in office and bribery case against ex-Mayor Ralph Infante.

Charges against a city employee in the same case have been dropped, officials said Tuesday.

Nine counts against Charles Nader, 64, who served as city auditor from 2006-15, are included in a 50-count indictment that supersedes the original 56-count indictment against Infante issued last November.

The grand jury’s supplemental indictment reduces the number of counts against Infante to 41, most of them felonies.

Nader is indicted on four felony counts and five misdemeanors. The felonies – theft, two counts of tampering with records and an unlawful interested in a public contract – charge the former auditor with using a city computer for his private tax-preparation business and with failing to list income from a tax client who was also doing business with the city.

The misdemeanors include making false statements to two state auditors and accepting compensation from a company that was “seeking to do business” with the city.

“I only heard about the indictments a few minutes ago, and I don’t have any comment,” said Nader when contacted by The Vindicator on Tuesday. “I’m in the process of hiring an attorney.”

Nader resigned as auditor in September 2015, a few months before his term was to have expired and nearly a year after the city was declared in fiscal emergency by the state auditor.

At the time, several council members had criticized him for his handling of payroll records and the transition to a new software system required by the city’s recovery plan, but Nader denied his early departure was related to the criticism.

An arraignment hearing for Nader is pending.

At the request of Daniel Kasaris, special prosecutor, the state dismissed all charges against Scott Shaffer, a city employee who had faced two criminal counts in the November indictments.

He had been charged with pocketing the money from the sale of city property, and using city equipment for his personal interests for a decade.

The Vindicator asked Shaffer’s attorney Martin White if the charges were dropped in exchange for an agreement to testify against Infante in the future.

“I do not know, but if he is subpoenaed, he will appear and testify honestly,” White responded.

Infante’s wife Judy, 68, faces seven counts of tampering with records for failing to report and trying to conceal “income from gambling and other sources.”

She had originally been indicted on 10 counts last November. Her husband’s business, ITAM No. 39 in Girard, is indicted on six counts including “engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity” that mostly included illegal gambling.

Infante, 61, and his wife entered not-guilty pleas Tuesday before Visiting Judge Patricia Cosgrove of Summit County.

She has set Dec. 11 as Infante’s trial date. The judge was in court to conduct a pretrial hearing on the case when the indictments were issued.

The indictments allege Infante illegally received nearly $200,000 in unreported cash, income and gifts.