Oakhill defendants will not appear in court

By David Skolnick

By DAVID SKOLNICK

skolnick@vindy.com

YOUNGSTOWN

None of the defendants named in a 73-count Mahoning County corruption indictment are expected in court today for their arraignments.

Also, the five criminal common pleas judges are expected today to recuse themselves and ask the Ohio Supreme Court to assign a visiting judge to oversee the case involving the seven people – including two elected county officeholders – and three companies indicted.

“I’m expecting to draft that” letter to the supreme court today, said Robert Regula, the court administrator.

The charges include engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity, conspiracy, perjury, bribery, money laundering, tampering with records, conflict of interest and soliciting or accepting improper compensation.

Those charged are: county Commissioner John A. McNally IV; county Auditor Michael V. Sciortino; Anthony M. Cafaro Sr., the recently retired president of the Cafaro Co.; Flora Cafaro, part owner of the Cafaro Co.; ex-county Treasurer John Reardon; Atty. Martin Yavorcik; and John Zachariah, former county Job and Family Services director.

Also charged are the Cafaro Co. and two of its subsidiaries: the Ohio Valley Mall and the Marion Plaza.

The indictment accuses the seven people and three companies of illegally allowing private interests to unsuccessfully block the county’s purchase of Oakhill Renaissance Place.

Attorneys for all of the defendants, except Zachariah, submitted documents that included not guilty pleas to Judge Maureen Sweeney. The defendants won’t appear today in court. Judge Sweeney is handling the grand-jury-indictment arraignments.

As of late Monday, Zachariah of Chagrin Falls had not been served with an indictment. He’s expected to be served shortly, and arraigned in about a week.

Based on the recommendations of the prosecuting attorneys and the lawyers representing the defendants, no one will be required to post bond.

As for selecting a judge to hear these cases, the court administrator’s office has a stack of 50 index cards, with each judge’s courtroom on 10 cards each, Regula said. One card is drawn during the arraignment to determine which judge will get the case, he said. Also a trial date will be set at the arraignment.

“Once that’s done, the judges will formally recuse themselves” as they did during the 2007 civil lawsuit regarding this matter, Regula said.

In that suit, the Cafaro Co. unsuccessfully sued the county to rescind the latter’s purchase of Oakhill. A visiting judge ordered Sciortino in July 2007 to write a $75,000 check to have the county buy Oakhill.

The Ohio Supreme Court could assign a visiting judge as soon as late today, and probably no later than the end of the week, Regula said.

The indictment charges Cafaro Sr. and his business entities of conspiring with McNally, Sciortino, Zachariah and Reardon, the county’s former treasurer and ex-Ohio superintendent of financial institutions, to prevent or delay the relocation of the Job and Family Services office at the Cafaro-owned Garland Plaza.

The office was relocated in 2007 to Oakhill.

The indictment accuses McNally, Sciortino, Reardon and Zachariah of taking bribes from the Cafaro Co. and/or its subsidiaries, and the first three are also charged with conflict of interest.

The case began nearly three years ago when county Prosecutor Paul J. Gains asked the Ohio Ethics Commission to investigate potential criminal violations related to the objections to relocating JFS to Oakhill, said David E. Freel, the commission’s executive director.

“This is a serious and significant investigation,” Freel said. “It is a very serious case that required a tremendous amount of work.”

When asked about the long history of government corruption in the Mahoning Valley, Freel, who was raised in Niles, said: “The governance of the Valley will change when the citizens of the Valley demand it and expect it. The Valley has a way to go” before it is free of government corruption.

The investigation wasn’t about whether relocating JFS to Oak- hill was a sound decision, Freel said.

“It’s about alleged corrupt activity involved in attempting to prohibit the county from doing so,” he said.