Opening statements today in client theft case against suspended judge, associates

YOUNGSTOWN

Suspended Mahoning County Judge Diane Vettori-Caraballo used more than $300,000 allegedly stolen from her deceased client to pay her credit-card debt, according to Tuesday testimony.

She appeared in county probate court Tuesday for proceedings relating to her alleged theft of more than $300,000 from the estate.

Attorneys presented opening statements in the civil-action case, in which Vettori-Caraballo and other co-defendants including her husband, Ismael Caraballo, and associates Cynthia Henry and Theodore Stalnacker, all of Youngstown, are accused of concealing assets from the estate of Dolores Falgiani after Falgiani died in March 2016.

The complaint, filed Nov. 6 by Douglas Neuman, attorney for the estate, alleges Vettori-Caraballo, who helped prepare wills for Robert Sampson and his sister, Falgiani – who took over Sampson’s estate upon his death – and Henry, whom Falgiani named executor of her will at Vettori-Caraballo’s recommendation, “worked in concert to gain control over” Falgiani’s assets, including hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash both Faligiani and Sampson hoarded – much of which was not logged in the probate court.

Read more about the case in Wednesday's Vindicator or on Vindy.com.