Sammarone, Marchionda, Bozanich go on trial in 2020

By DAVID SKOLNICK

skolnick@vindy.com

YOUNGSTOWN

The corruption trial of ex-Youngstown Mayor Charles Sammarone, former city Finance Director David Bozanich and downtown developer Dominic Marchionda is set for a year from now – June 1, 2020.

Judge Maureen Sweeney of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court, who is overseeing the trial, scheduled it after meeting Friday behind closed doors with attorneys for the defendants and Dan Kasaris, a special assistant county prosecutor and senior assistant state attorney general. The defendants sat together in a separate room across the hall while those discussions occurred.

Judge Sweeney said a trial is expected to take a month.

The three men and 10 companies owned by Marchionda 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.

Sammarone has requested a separate trial from the others. The state has until the end of June to file an objection to the request if it chooses that option.

Pretrial and motion hearings are scheduled for Jan. 23 and 24, 2020, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Judge Sweeney said there’s a lot to review over the two days.

The final pretrial hearing is at 9 a.m. May 27, 2020, with the jury trial starting at 8:30 a.m. June 1, 2020.

If Sammarone’s motion to have a separate trial is granted, he would have a different schedule.

The indictment accuses Marchionda, of Poland, of misspending at least $600,000 in city funds on personal items in addition to misusing money obtained from city, state and federal governments for The Flats at Wick student-housing complex and the Erie Terminal Place and Wick Towers projects.

Bozanich, of Youngstown, the former longtime city finance director until December 2017, is accused of assisting individuals, including Marchionda through an associate, who sought public funding for economic-development projects in exchange for money, golf fees, meals and trips.

Sammarone, of Youngstown, is accused of taking $10,000 in cash payments from a vendor in return for steering projects to that person’s company. Sammarone was mayor from August 2011 to December 2013.

The Vindicator reported in October 2018 that the vendor in question is Raymond Briya, a former MS Consultants Inc. vice president. He is a key figure in the probe as he is not only alleged to have provided benefits from MS – without the company’s knowledge – to Sammarone, but also to Bozanich to obtain work for MS, and is alleged to have received benefits from Marchionda. Briya is believed to be cooperating with prosecutors against the three defendants.

In a motion for a separate trial, John Shultz, Sammarone’s attorney, wrote the indictment “never alleged that defendant Sammarone participated in the same act or transaction or the same series of acts or transactions with the named co-defendants which constitute an offense or offenses.”

Shultz wrote that the only reference in the indictment that connects Sammarone to the others is engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity, which “appears to be ‘catch all.’”

Shultz wrote “that the mere number of multiple defendants creates an environment of substantial unfairness” to Sammarone.

“He was the only elected public official named in this indictment and he is vulnerable to unjustly being accused and convicted because of the purported actions of other government employees and/or involving public funds,” Shultz added. “Under these circumstances, defendant Sammarone asserts that a joint trial would create a prejudicial atmosphere and prevent a jury from making a reliable judgment about his [guilt] or innocence.”