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Judge permits Youngstown corruption probe defendants to get grand jury testimony from two key witnesses
Ex-Youngstown mayor still wants separate trial
YOUNGSTOWN
The judge in the corruption trial of ex-Youngstown Mayor Charles Sammarone, former city Finance Director David Bozanich and downtown developer Dominic Marchionda is requiring the prosecutor to provide the defense with grand jury testimony from two key witnesses.
Meanwhile, Sammarone’s attorney filed a response to the prosecutor’s objection to the former mayor’s motion to have a trial separate from the other defendants.
Sammarone, Bozanich, Marchionda and 10 companies owned by the latter were indicted Aug. 20, 2018, on 101 counts, including engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity, bribery, aggravated theft and tampering with records. They’ve all pleaded not guilty.
The trial is scheduled to start June 1, 2020.
Dan Kasaris, a special assistant Mahoning County prosecutor and a senior assistant attorney general, objected last month to the request by John Shultz, Sammarone’s attorney, for a separate trial. Kasaris wrote that several witnesses may be called to testify against the three men and that “Sammarone and Bozanich’s crimes are of the same character and involve the same person who was providing [these] two men benefits for the same reason – to secure work for his company.”
The person in question is Raymond Briya, a former MS Consultant Inc. vice president. He’s a key figure in the investigation as he is alleged to have provided benefits from MS – without the company’s knowledge – to Sammarone and Bozanich to obtain work for the company and is alleged to have received benefits from Marchionda.
In a response filed last week, Shultz wrote the prosecutor doesn’t contend in legal documents that the alleged bribes were related.
He added: “The only commonality to be inferred is that the same disingenuous person, who interestingly has already admitted to having committed perjury, ostensibly bribed different individuals on a golf course. Yet the state suggests that this court should accommodate that self-admitted perjurer and subjugate this defendant’s constitutional rights. This theory is contrary to the dictates of our criminal justice system.”
Common Pleas Judge Maureen Sweeney, who is overseeing the trial, will decide if Sammarone is tried separately.
Judge Sweeney decided to grant a motion from Bozanich, Marchionda and Marchionda’s companies to have the prosecutor provide them with the grand jury testimony of Briya and Donald D’Andrea, another key witness in the case.
In her ruling, the judge wrote that the defendants have “adequately demonstrated particularized need for the grand jury testimony” and “the state has indicated its intention not to oppose the defendants’ request for this testimony.”
Briya allegedly made payments of more than $100,000 to Bozanich, when he was finance director, and $10,000 to Sammarone, when he was mayor, in return for steering city projects to MS, according to the indictment.
The indictment also alleges Briya; D’Andrea, a former vice president of B&B Contractors and Developers; and Philip Beshara, B&B’s ex-president, formed Exal Leasing LLC, which provided Bozanich with $100,000 to push a project that didn’t materialize. None of them have been indicted and are believed to be cooperating with prosecutors in the cases against Sammarone, Bozanich and Marchionda.
The indictment alleges Marchionda improperly spent at least $600,000 in city funds on personal items as well as misusing money from the city, state and federal governments for The Flats at Wick student-housing complex and the Erie Terminal Place and Wick Towers projects.
Bozanich is accused of assisting people, including Marchionda through an associate, who sought public funding for economic-development projects from the city in exchange for money, golf fees, meals and trips.
Sammarone is accused of taking $10,000 in cash payments from Briya in return for steering projects to MS when he was mayor.