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YOUNGSTOWN -- An assistant prosecutor and former Republican candidate for judge has been fired for allegations of impropriety.
Mahoning County Prosecutor Lynn Maro confirmed Thursday that assistant prosecutor Anissa Modarelli was fired last week after repeatedly having lunch with a juror in a murder case.
"Public confidence in the legal system requires that court proceedings not simply be conducted fairly behind the scenes, but also that they appear completely fair and unbiased. To take an action short of termination sends a message to the public and to the judges of this county that this office tolerates such conduct. It does not and never will," Maro said.
Maro explained that while the jury was deliberating in the murder trial of Darius Smith last week, she learned that Modarelli and the juror had lunch on three of the five days it took to try the case.
She said they twice had lunch in public restaurants and on a third occasion Modarelli brought the juror into the Prosecutor's Office and they ate lunch in Modarelli's office.
Maro said Modarelli was called before Mahoning County Common Pleas Court Judge John Durkin, who was hearing the Smith case, and admitted that she had lunch with the juror. She said Durkin dismissed the juror, seated one of the alternates, and allowed the case to proceed to a verdict.
Maro said Modarelli was fired that afternoon.
Smith, who faced a murder charge with a gun specification that could have landed him in prison for 18 years to life, did not deny shooting 16-year-old Ty'Ron Perry Jr. of Akron at Smith's Dewey Avenue home on May 27. He stated that he only did so because he believed Perry was raising a gun and was about to shoot him.
Despite multiple witnesses in the trial stating that they never saw the boy point a gun at Smith, defense attorney Frank Cassese argued that DNA evidence showed the gun was in Perry Jr.'s hand, and seemed to convince the jury that Smith never would have turned to open fire unless he believed he was in imminent danger.
Smith said he only came out of his bedroom that night because he could hear some of his mother's friends, who were there to party after bailing her out of jail, discuss the idea of robbing him, something he said had happened before.
Maro said she did not care to speculate on whether the removal of a juror in any way affected the verdict in the case.
"The termination had nothing to do with the verdict. A young man was shot multiple times and died. The young man who did it claimed self-defense. In our system, the jurors, the conscience of the community, spoke and I respect that verdict," she said. "The termination was required because the assistant prosecutor violated the professional conduct requirements for this office. Those of us who work in the justice system have been entrusted to operate it properly, fairly, and ethically."
Modarelli spent roughly 20 years handling cases in Mahoning County Juvenile Court, and was the head of that division before assuming her role in the felony prosecution division under Maro. Oddly enough, it was Judge Durkin's seat for which Modarelli was seeking the Republican nomination in May. She lost the primary race to former criminal division chief Ralph Rivera by a 54.7% to 45.3% margin.