YOUNGSTOWN — The attorney in charge of the estate from which former Mahoning County judge Diane Vettori stole at least $100,000 says it’s not clear whether two local animal charities will get any more money from it.

In September, Vettori reported to federal prison to begin serving a 30-month term, and was ordered to make $328,000 in restitution for stealing cash from the estate of a client.

The court directed that the restitution should be paid to Animal Charity of Ohio in Boardman and Angels for Animals in Canfield, as directed by the client’s will. Each of the charities received $150,582 in 2017.

They also will receive any additional assets recovered in the future, said attorney Douglas Neuman of Niles, executor of the estate of Dolores Falgiani.

In October, however, the government filed a document in federal court reporting that a Huntington National Bank checking account for the former judge had $19 and a savings account had $36.

The filing stated that Vettori, 51, has a safety deposit box that has not been accessed since November 2012, but otherwise the bank holds no other personal property in her name.

Neuman recently filed a foreclosure action in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court seeking to acquire assets owned by Vettori to pay off some of the $328,000 in restitution.

Neuman also is retaining about $20,000 to continue with any legal work that is needed, such as the foreclosure.

He said it’s possible he will recover about $75,000 — half of the approximately $150,000 home she and her husband, Ismael Caraballo, own. Vettori also is one-quarter owner of two small pieces of property.

Otherwise, he’s not certain there will be any other assets he or the federal government can recover and turn over to the charities. It will depend on whether Vettori wants to turn over additional money “if she has it,” Neuman said.

He said he believes Vettori hid some of the money, which was in cash, he said.

“You’ve got to wonder what Diane does when she is released from prison,” Neuman said. “If she has it, she may turn it over. Or maybe I’m completely wrong, and it’s all gone, and she really went through all of the money in less than a year.”

Attorney John Juhasz, one of the attorneys representing Vettori, said it’s hard to make a specific response to a nonspecific and unsubstantiated allegation such as the one Neuman is making.

“What is it and where is it?” Juhasz said of the money Neuman thinks Vettori has hidden.

He pointed out that Vettori did write a restitution check in July. Published reports indicate she paid $15,325, reducing her restitution amount to about $313,200.

On March 10, 2016, Falgiani was found dead at home. Vettori, who had a private legal practice while serving as Mahoning County Area Court judge in Sebring, had written her will and later provided legal services to her estate.

Court documents indicate that Falgiani had between $92,800 and $328,000 in cash in her home at the time of her death and that Vettori stole all but $20,000 of it.

In October 2016, Mahoning County Probate Court authorized distribution of assets from Falgiani’s estate to friends and family as Falgiani had directed.

A July 2017 probate court accounting of the estate said $664,442 was distributed to a dozen or so individuals, pastors, a religious sister and St. Columba Cathedral.

Falgiani’s will indicated specific amounts those individuals and entities should get and said the remainder of her money should go to Animal Charity of Ohio in Boardman and Angels for Animals in Canfield.

Vettori pleaded guilty last February to one count of mail fraud, one count of structuring cash deposits and one count of making false statements to law enforcement. She is serving her prison sentence at Federal Prison Camp Alderson in West Virginia.

erunyan@tribtoday.com