Staff photo / David Skolnick Downtown developer Dominic Marchionda, right, acknowledges his guilt Friday in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court to four felony counts of tampering with records. With him is his attorney, John F. McCaffrey.

YOUNGSTOWN — Attorneys for ex-Youngstown Finance Director David Bozanich and downtown developer Dominic Marchionda said plea agreements their clients accepted Friday are a far cry from the 101-count indictment that charged them with engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity and dozens of other felonies.

“Look at where this case began and where it ended up,” Ralph E. Cascarilla, Bozanich’s attorney, said.

Bozanich, 63, of Youngstown, was initially charged with 18 felonies in the Aug. 30, 2018, indictment.

As part of an agreement with prosecutors, Bozanich pleaded guilty in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court to one count each of bribery and tampering with records, both felonies, and two misdemeanor counts of unlawful compensation of a public official. The unlawful compensation counts were initially bribery and the tampering count was reduced from aggravated theft.

Marchionda, 60, of Poland, was initially charged nearly two years ago with 66 felonies.

He pleaded guilty to four felony counts of tampering with records, all occurring on Oct. 6, 2011, when Marchionda admitted he used false invoices to get money from the city for his Erie Terminal Place downtown-housing project to pay bills he owed for his Flats at Wick student-house complex.

“This indictment was a racketeering indictment,” John F. McCaffrey, Marchionda’s attorney, said. “It contained offenses of theft, money laundering, bribery” and “what we’re left with today (are) these four counts related to a single day.”

When asked if the indictment was overdone, McCaffrey said: “I’ll leave that to your conclusions, but how often do you see a 100-count (racketeering) indictment in Mahoning County?”

While Bozanich declined to comment after pleading guilty, Marchionda said: “That was one of the most difficult things I’ve ever had to do. I’ve endured an investigation here for the last five years, and I definitely regret certain acts that took place in October of 2011.”

Marchionda also talked about how instrumental he was in the development of downtown, including the DoubleTree by Hilton hotel, up the block from the courthouse.

Dan Kasaris, a senior assistant attorney general and lead prosecutor on this case, referred comment to Steve Irwin, an attorney general spokesman.

In a written statement, Irwin didn’t address the plea agreement except to say they “are the latest part of an ongoing investigation into corruption in Youngstown.”

Irwin added it was “a public corruption scheme that funneled city of Youngstown dollars to (Marchionda’s) development projects.”

SENTENCING DATE

The two will be sentenced Sept. 3 by Judge Maureen Sweeney.

Marchionda faces up to 12 years in prison while Bozanich faces up to six years.

Their attorneys said they’ll ask for probation or community control.

Kasaris’ only comment was that the state would seek prison time for both.

Ten of Marchionda’s affiliated companies that did work on the Flats at Wick as well as the Erie Terminal Place and Wick Towers, another downtown-housing project, also were indicted Aug. 30, 2018.

As part of Friday’s plea deal, the charges against eight of the companies were dismissed.

U.S. Campus Suites, which was involved in the development of Erie Terminal, pleaded guilty to a felony count of receiving stolen property for illegally obtaining between $75,000 and $150,000 in money from the city of Youngstown.

Rubino Construction Inc. pleaded guilty to an amended count of unauthorized use of property, a felony. It had been charged with receiving stolen property related to taking more than $150,000 “by conversion or deception” from the state for the Wick Towers project.

Wick Properties LLC, one of the company’s that had its aggravated theft charge dismissed Friday, was accused of obtaining a $5 million energy loan from the state for the Wick Towers project.

In court, Kasaris said the charge was dismissed because the company still owes $4.3 million to the state and can’t get a loan as it was under indictment. Now it can obtain a loan and pay back the state, he said.

As part of the plea agreement, Marchionda agreed to pay $25,000 at the time of sentencing for the cost of his prosecution. He also will remove himself from management responsibilities of four of his companies: Rubino Construction, Wick Properties LLC, Erie Terminal Place LLC and NYO Property Group.

“But he is still very much involved in them,” McCaffrey said.

Bozanich will pay $5,000 when he’s sentenced.

CONVICTION DETAILS

Marchionda was charged with misspending $600,000 in city funds on personal items in addition to misusing money obtained by the city, state and federal governments for the three downtown projects.

He was convicted of creating four fake invoices, totaling $260,625, to the city for work that was supposed to be for the Erie Terminal project but in reality was used to pay companies for previous work done at Flats at Wick.

Bozanich was accused of illegally giving assistance to people, including Marchionda through an associate, who sought public funding for economic-development purposes in exchange for money, golf fees, meals and trips exceeding $125,000.

The bribery conviction was for accepting free golf — Cascarilla estimated the cost at $800 — from Raymond Briya, a former MS Consultant Inc. chief financial officer so his company “could secure work for or within the city of Youngstown, then devised a scheme to hide the benefits.” Prosecutors say Briya did this without MS officials’ knowledge.

The tampering with records conviction is for Bozanich giving $1.2 million from the city’s water fund to Marchionda if the developer would give $1 million back to the city’s general fund in December 2009 to buy the Madison Avenue fire station, which closed in December 2019. This was done so Bozanich could balance the city’s struggling general fund at the end of the year.

Cascarilla said, “Not one dollar of that went to Mr. Bozanich; $1 million went back to the general fund. That was used to pay for critical city services.”

It would have been illegal for the city to just transfer water money to the general fund.

One of the two unlawful compensation convictions was for Bozanich not paying $10,000 in legal fees to attorney Stephen Garea for work he did for Bozanich’s ex-wife. The indictment had alleged Garea agreed to the deal to help secure funding for the Flats at Wick project. He was assisting Marchionda with that project.

The other unlawful compensation conviction was for Bozanich accepting more free golf — Cascarilla estimated the cost at $400 — from Briya.

Former Youngstown Mayor Charles Sammarone was also indicted Aug. 30, 2018, on 14 counts. He took a plea agreement March 16 to two felony counts of tampering with records. He received five years of probation and 30 days of community service.

Also, Briya struck a deal with prosecutors and had planned to be a key witness in the cases against those who pleaded guilty. Briya pleaded guilty Sept. 10, 2019, to two counts of attempted bribery as well as one count each of tampering with records, grand theft and obstructing justice, all felonies.

Briya, who pleaded to more felonies than anyone else in the investigation, will be sentenced at a later date.