Judge, lawyers discuss evidence seized at ex-Niles mayor's home

WARREN

The judge in the Ralph Infante public-corruption case heard arguments today from Infante's attorney and special prosecutor Dan Kasaris of the Ohio Attorney General's Office regarding Infante's motion asking that evidence seized by agents at Infante's former home North Rhodes Avenue in Niles be suppressed.

The former Niles mayor and his wife, Judy, owned the home in earlier years, but his attorney argued in a September filing that they did not own it when investigators raided it Feb. 1, 2016. Agents seized records that special prosecutors say are related to illegal gambling and the operation of ITAM No. 39 on State Street in McKinley Heights.

Infante seeks to have the evidence suppressed on the grounds that he didn’t live there when the search was done.

Infante, 61, is facing 41 criminal charges accusing him of taking bribes, gambling, engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity and other offenses.

Infante's attorney, John Juhasz, told visiting judge Patricia Cosgrove that agents who executed the search warrant that day were told that there were parts of the home that had been designated as belonging to Ralph and Judy Infante and parts that had been designated as belonging to Judy's daughter, Michelle Sudzina, and her husband, John.

Juhasz said the issue is whether the agents could search areas not used by the Infantes.

Kasaris answered that he doesn't recall anything that they plan to use as evidence in the case that came from areas outside of Ralph and Judy's parts of the house.

Furthermore, agents were told that the Sudzinas were still "in the process of moving back into the house" at the time of the search warrant and agents can "look anywhere in the house that they need to."

The judge asked that Kasaris provide a transcript of the hearing that was held when the search warrant was approved by Judge W. Wyatt McKay of Trumbull County Common Pleas Court.

The next hearing in the case will be a telephone conference at 11 a.m. Nov. 15, the judge said. The trial date in the case is Dec. 11.