YOUNGSTOWN – David Bozanich, the disgraced former Youngstown finance director sentenced to a year behind bars in a public corruption scandal, is out of state prison.

Bozanich’s release date was Sept. 2, but he was set free Sunday, about six weeks early, according to his Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction certification of incarceration document.

Explaining his early release, JoEllen Smith, spokeswoman for the state department, said: “Mr. Bozanich earned credit days toward his sentence for program completion.”

Bozanich, 64, will now serve three years of probation.

Bozanich was convicted Aug. 7, 2020, in a plea deal to one felony count each of bribery and tampering with records and two misdemeanor counts of unlawful compensation of a public official. He was originally charged with 18 felonies in an Aug. 30, 2018, indictment.

Judge Maureen Sweeney of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court sentenced Bozanich on Sept. 3, 2020.

Bozanich had served his time at the Lake Erie Correctional Institution in Conneaut since Sept. 14, 2020, after 11 days in the Mahoning County jail while waiting to be processed by the state system.

The DRC recommended Bozanich be moved to a halfway house around March 8, but Sweeney denied the request.

Read MORE in Friday’s VINDICATOR.