AKRON — A visiting panel of appellate judges has affirmed the convictions and 10-year prison sentence of former Niles mayor Ralph Infante.

The panel from the Akron-based 9th District Court of Appeals rejected each of seven errors the attorney for Infante cited in his appeal.

Infante, 64, was sentenced to prison in May 2018 after a jury in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court found him guilty of 22 criminal charges.

He was found guilty of engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity, 13 counts of tampering with evidence and lesser counts of theft in office, having an unlawful interest in a public contract, gambling and falsification.

Prosecutors said his offenses took place throughout Infante’s 24 years as mayor ending in 2015.

The ruling focused extensively on Infante’s corruption conviction, which Infante argued could not stand up because it was based on insufficient evidence. It carried a 10-year sentence.

The judges stated Infante’s convictions for tampering with records, gambling, operating a gambling house, theft in office and having an unlawful interest in a public contract “are all examples of ‘corrupt activity.'”

Testimony showed that from 2007 through 2014, Infante filed ethics disclosure forms that indicated that he had not received income through gifts or businesses he operated. During other years, he indicated he had not received gambling or rental income, the ruling states.

But testimony indicated Infante and his wife, Judy, had income from operating the ITAM club in McKinley Heights and conducting gambling pools there and “more than $100,000 worth of other, unaccounted for cash deposits.

“The foregoing conduct ultimately resulted in 13 separate convictions for tampering with records, all of which were incidents of ‘corrupt activity,'” the ruling said.

It cited testimony from an ITAM employee as to Infante organizing gambling pools for club members.

Though Infante argued that the activities he and others carried out did not qualify as a criminal enterprise, the judges disagreed.

The ruling listed the $34,000 Infante earned from gambling pools, testimony regarding benefits Infante received and gave to the Niles-based Cafaro Co., and his urging of the city’s board of control to waive building and permit fees for the Cafaro Co. as examples.

“There also was evidence that Mr. Infante sanctioned and, at times directed, the use of city-owned property and services for the personal benefit of himself or others,” the ruling stated. It gave examples such as snow plowing and tree trimming.

The ruling said a jury “could have concluded that the state proved, beyond a reasonable doubt, that Mr. Infante was associated with an enterprise when he committed his offenses.”

Infante’s tampering convictions were reasonable because prosecutors “set forth evidence that he repeatedly filed ethics disclosure forms and tax returns containing false information,” the ruling states.

Infante is serving his sentence in the Lorain Correctional Institution.

erunyan@tribtoday.com