B&B lawyers amend lawsuit after charges are dismissed

Former attorney still faces charges of legal malpractice

By JUSTIN DENNIS

jdennis@vindy.com

YOUNGSTOWN

Attorneys for B&B Contractors and Developers on Thursday amended a lawsuit in response to several dismissed charges against one of the defendants, the company’s former attorney Stephen Garea.

The 86-page amended complaint was filed in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court.

The original suit, filed in 2017, accused Garea, former president Philip Beshara and former controller Sam DeCaria of a multimillion-dollar theft from the company. The complaint alleges Beshara had checks issued to his bank he deposited and DeCaria made them appear to be legitimate contracting job expenses.

The 2017 suit claims Garea took those unauthorized payments while working in his legal capacity for the company.

Because the complaint did not claim Garea was working outside of his role as attorney, Judge Maureen Sweeney dismissed all of Garea’s records tampering, theft and corruption charges on Aug. 27, leaving only counts of legal malpractice.

“The law in Ohio is well-settled that ‘a claim against an attorney for actions taken in his professional capacity is a claim sounding in legal malpractice no matter how artfully the pleadings attempt to raise some other claim,’” the ruling reads.

Thursday’s amended complaint includes several additions specifying Garea “was not acting as counsel for B&B in carrying out and covering up the unlawful actions, but rather, he was acting for his own personal gain.”

In a separate criminal indictment filed in August, unnamed conspirators are accused of bribing former Youngstown Finance Director David Bozanich to secure city money to fund a property development. Sources close to the investigation told The Vindicator two of the John Does are Garea and Beshara.

Judge Sweeney gave B&B attorneys leave to amend the complaint, said attorney Nick Sebastiano.

“She wanted us to delineate when Atty. Garea was acting as Atty. Garea and when he was committing unlawful acts against the company,” he said Thursday.