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Ex-Mahoning County auditor is no longer on probation
YOUNGSTOWN
Ex-Mahoning County Auditor Michael Sciortino, who served time in a halfway house for illegal use of county computers, is no longer on probation.
Visiting Judge Patricia A. Cosgrove of Summit County, who sentenced Sciortino to four to six months in a halfway house May 19, 2016, officially released him from probation Tuesday.
When sentenced by the judge, Sciortino was also ordered to report monthly for two years to the county probation office.
Sciortino couldn’t be reached Tuesday by The Vindicator to comment.
Court records aren’t clear as to how much of Sciortino’s sentence he served at the Community Corrections Association on Youngstown’s South Side, but the judge said at the time he was sentenced that he could be released after four months for good behavior.
A document filed Tuesday with the clerk of courts’ office reads: “On 5/19/2016, [Sciortino] was placed on supervision for a period of 2 years. He has complied with the rules and regulations and is no longer in need of supervision. It is accordingly recommended that Sciortino, Michael be discharged from supervision, and restored to all civil rights.” It’s signed by Patrick Sylvester, a parole officer.
Judge Cosgrove signed the document Tuesday ordering the termination of Sciortino’s probation.
Sciortino, a Democrat from Austintown, pleaded guilty April 11, 2016, 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, 2016, to resolve this case and one in Cuyahoga County.
Sciortino was indicted June 4, 2015, in Mahoning County on 25 felonies: 21 counts of unauthorized use of computer or telecommunication property and four counts of theft in office.
Court documents state Sciortino illegally used county-owned computers and other equipment more than 300 times for political purposes and his personal DJ/band business and law practice, and had three employees help him.
The deal had him plead guilty to illegally using a county computer twice for golf fundraisers in 2010 and 2012 for his political campaigns.
Sciortino said he started using county computers when his personal computer stopped working.
Prosecutors said Sciortino used the county computers between Oct. 6, 2005, and Aug. 29, 2012.
At Sciortino’s sentencing, Judge Cosgrove said to him: “Your fall from grace has been meteoric. You had a law license, and now you work as a manager at a doughnut shop. It doesn’t get any worse than that.”
Sciortino is seeking reinstatement of his law license through the Ohio Supreme Court.
The Cuyahoga County case 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, 2016, 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.