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Officials mum on assistant prosecutor’s absence
By Joe Gorman
YOUNGSTOWN
Mahoning County Prosecutor Paul J. Gains refuses to say if a soon-to-be dismissed lawsuit against his office has led to the absence of one of his assistant prosecutors.
The suit was filed in federal court by a former witness in a murder case that was dismissed.
Gains has repeatedly said “no comment” when asked about the status of Assistant Prosecutor Martin P. Desmond, who has not been to work since Thursday.
On Tuesday afternoon, however, Gains confirmed Desmond has been on paid administrative leave since Friday – but declined to explain why.
“It’s not going to be long,” Gains said when asked about the length of the paid leave.
“This is an internal matter,” was all Gains would say last Friday.
Reached at home last Friday, Desmond only said he is not leaving the prosecutor’s office before telling a reporter he could not discuss the matter further.
Desmond, 43, who joined the prosecutor’s office in April 2004, has since refused to return several voice and text messages asking him about his status.
A personnel action request form supplied by the county auditor’s office confirmed Desmond was placed on paid administrative leave Thursday from his $78,000-a-year job.
If any hearing is held on the matter, it won’t be public, Gains said.
Gains said the letter placing Desmond on paid leave is not a matter of public record, and that he’ll explain why when Desmond’s personnel file is released to The Vindicator this week.
The personnel file has been transmitted to Atty. Todd Raskin, a Cleveland lawyer working for the County Risk Sharing Authority of Ohio, a property and liability risk sharing pool sponsored by the County Commissioners Association of Ohio, Gains said.
Raskin is providing the county with “a second opinion” in addition to that of the county prosecutor’s office staff, Gains said.
Gains said Raskin’s services are included in the agreement the county already has with the County Risk Sharing Authority, of which the county is a member.
Raskin hopes to “review the file and make any redactions” and to release the information by this afternoon, Gains said.
All three county commissioners said they had no official information concerning Desmond.
Commissioner Anthony Traficanti said he has heard “rumor and innuendo” from lawyers, but the commissioners never discussed Desmond in their staff or board meetings.
Though Gains has been silent, multiple sources told The Vindicator that Desmond’s suspension has some connection to the lawsuit the county faced from Kalilo Robinson, who was held as a material witness in the murder case of Marquan White.
Robinson sued Gains and the prosecutor’s office for wrongful arrest and malicious prosecution.
The suit alleged that Robinson, who invoked his Fifth Amendment rights during a pretrial hearing in the case, was indicted on charges of tampering with evidence and obstruction of justice based on the “misrepresentation of facts” to a county grand jury.
Robinson was held in jail for several days until his attorney, James Wise, could secure his release through the 7th District Court Of Appeals. The charges later were dropped.
The latest court filing in the case, dated March 22 in the U.S. Northern District Court Of Ohio, says the case will be dismissed at a later date, but it does not give a reason why. Judge Benita Y. Pearson is hearing the case.
Prosecutors in December dismissed the case against White, who was accused of killing 17-year-old Antwon Lee Martinez in November 2014 as they were walking on Guadalupe Avenue on the North Side.
When asked if Desmond had anything to do with Robinson’s case, Wise refused to comment.
Desmond typically handles drug cases.
Some of Desmond’s better-known cases include the prosecution of Bennie Adams in 2008 for the 1985 cold-case murder of Gina Tenney, which resulted in a death sentence for Adams until that was overturned; and the prosecutions last year of Michael Austin and Hakeem Henderson, who were charged with four murders on the East Side as part of an East Side drug ring.