YOUNGSTOWN — The race for Mahoning County prosecutor has been fueled by allegations and disputes between longtime Prosecutor Paul Gains and former assistant prosecutor Marty Desmond, Gains’ challenger.

The two have been mired in litigation since Gains fired Desmond in 2017, alleging Desmond uttered false claims of an ethical violation by another assistant prosecutor.

Desmond appealed his termination to the State Personnel Board of Review and sued Gains for defamation. Both cases are pending.

Gains, 69, a Democrat, has been prosecutor 23 years and also worked as a defense attorney, Youngstown police officer and steelworker. One of his most notable incidents happened on Christmas Eve in 1996. An intruder, working for mobster Lennie Strollo, shot Gains in his home in a failed attempt to prevent Gains from taking office.

Desmond, 46, a Republican, has his own story, having been held at gunpoint and robbed at the Desmond family home on the city’s North Side on Dec. 28, 1997. The perpetrator was Edward J. Palmer, who Desmond said had been stalking Desmond’s mother.

Desmond said Palmer pointed a gun at Desmond’s head at the front door and forced Desmond back into the house. About 30 minutes later, Desmond convinced Palmer to go outside, and Desmond pushed Palmer and shut the door. Police quickly arrested Palmer, who was sentenced to 32 years in prison in the Desmond case and for crimes against other victims, according to court documents.

Desmond, of Poland, has been working as a private-practice attorney the last 3 1/2 years after serving as assistant prosecutor under Gains for 13 years. Desmond worked three years for the FBI.

Desmond started posting videos on his website and running television ads several weeks ago criticizing Gains’ performance as prosecutor.

Gains ran an ad saying that when Desmond applied to work for Gains in about 2004, Desmond “concealed the fact that he had been fired by the FBI.” The ad referenced a federal court document that quoted Desmond testimony.

It showed the words “I was fired,” but the rest of the sentence was: “I was offered the opportunity to go back to my old job; however, if I did not take that, I was fired.”

An attorney for Desmond responded by demanding that local television stations not air the ad, saying it was “patently false” and misled viewers.

ABOUT THE FBI

Gains has since provided The Vindicator with the documentation from a federal civil suit Desmond filed against the FBI that gives additional information about Desmond’s departure from the FBI.

The documents indicate that Desmond received a poor evaluation in September 2000 while undergoing his 16-week new agent training to be an FBI agent at the Marine Corps Base in Quantico, Va.

One of the criticisms was that he exhibited “a lack of emotional maturity,” including crying. Desmond told The Vindicator he cried after the death from leukemia of a 9-year-old family friend.

Desmond later provided other documentation, including a federal appeals court decision supporting Desmond’s claim that the FBI may have discriminated against him when dismissing him from the FBI Academy in Quantico.

The ruling indicated that a jury should decide whether the FBI gave false reasons for dismissing him from the academy and and should decide whether the reason for the dismissal was that Desmond was having trouble sleeping while at the academy because of him suffering from post tramatic stress disorder.

His PTSD symptoms were brought on by the 1997 armed robbery, the death of the 9-year-old just before he was scheduled to graduate from the FBI Academy, and learning that his first FBI assignment would be in Chicago, Desmond said. Desmond told The Vindicator he does not believe he ever truly had PTSD.

PTSD SYMPTOMS

Desmond said the Chicago assignment worsened his PTSD symptoms because it would take him many hours away from his mother, whom he felt he needed to protect.

A November 2000 letter to Desmond from an FBI personnel officer advised Desmond he was being removed from the new agent training program but could return to his former position with the FBI as financial analyst in the Cleveland office.

“Should you choose not to return to that position, you are hereby dismissed from the rolls of the FBI,” the letter stated. Desmond chose to leave the FBI and later sued the organization.

The personnel officer wrote that he was “disturbed by the manner” in which Desmond tried several times to have his first assignment as an FBI special agent after training changed from Chicago to Cleveland “or another office in closer proximity to Cleveland.”

Desmond told The Vindicator that after the federal appeals court ruling in his favor, the federal government settled the suit out of court, paying him $125,000.

Desmond said his PTSD symptoms “included extreme worry for my mother’s safety and guilt that I would not be able to help her — a promise I made to my father prior to his death.”

Gains later provided The Vindicator with a part of a deposition Desmond gave in his federal civil suit in 2005 in which Desmond stated, “The FBI’s termination of my employment as a special agent has caused me to experience severe emotional distress … .”

Desmond said the use of the word “termination” was for legal reasons by his attorneys, but the more plain word would have been “ended.” The next paragraph of the deposition quotes Desmond saying he was terminated from the training program.

‘NEVER TOLD ME’

Gains says Desmond “concealed” his dismissal from the FBI Academy from him when Desmond applied to be an assistant prosecutor and provided the newspaper with a copy of the resume.

Desmond “identified himself as a special agent investigating crimes in Cleveland, Ohio, and that’s what I thought I was hiring,” Gains has said.

Gains added: “He never told me that he was not permitted to graduate from the FBI Academy in Quantico, Va. And he never told me that they informed him that he was not suitable to be an FBI agent.”

The part of Desmond’s resume related to his time with the FBI states that he worked for the FBI from September 1997 to November 2000 and was “special agent” from February 2000 until November 2000 and financial analyst from September 1997 to January 2000. It does not mention that he was not allowed to graduate from the FBI Academy.

But Desmond provided documentation showing that he was offered and accepted an appointment as an FBI special agent in February 2000 and resigned Nov. 14, 2000.

He never worked as a special agent in Cleveland. His time in Cleveland was spent as a financial analyst.

A document provided by Gains informing Desmond he was removed from the new agent training program suggests that Desmond was considered a special agent from the time he began his training.

“Upon your appointment as a FBI special agent, you were advised in writing that your appointment was subject to a two-year probationary period which, in your case, expires at the close of business Feb. 13, 2002,” the letter states.

OFFICE GOALS

During interviews, both candidates also have discussed their previous accomplishments and goals for the Mahoning County Prosecutor’s office.

Gains said when he was elected prosecutor, he and the county commissioners agreed that Gains could hire additional attorneys to help the townships with their civil legal matters, such as workers’ compensation cases.

At the time, the townships rarely ever used the county prosecutor’s office for civil matters. “The 14 townships in Mahoning County were all using outside lawyers,” Gains said. Gains spoke with township officials and convinced them to have his staff members take over those duties.

It costs the county more money to to handle cases for the townships, but, “In the past 12 years, we saved the townships and the county over $38 million,” Gains said. It makes more money available for the townships to fund their police, fire and road departments, Gains said.

Gains’ office handled all of the legal work when the county and Western Reserve Port Authority created the Campus of Care out of the former Youngstown Developmental Center on East Countyline Road in Austintown, he said.

“It was just a ton of work,” Gains said. He estimates the work done would have cost between $500,000 and $750,000 if the county would have had to hire lawyers to do it.

His civil division also foreclosed on more than 5,000 parcels in the past seven years, he said. Foreclosures make it possible for the Mahoning County Land Bank to acquire the properties make them available for new, productive uses.

Desmond said if he becomes prosecutor, cases will be examined early, in the municipal courts, and as deeply as necessary to understand what makes each case different.

One of his chief accomplishments when he was an assistant Mahoning County prosecutor was being lead prosecutor for the Mahoning Valley Law Enforcement Task Force, often known as the drug task force, Desmond said.

“When I went to the task force, I took the approach that we are not going to just go after one drug dealer at a time, let’s get the whole organization. Let’s take it back as far as we can.”

Desmond approached the FBI gang unit and partnered with it.

“In the gang unit we identified where gang activity was taking place throughout the city, and we would focus on that particular neighborhood.”

It led to prosecutions of members of the “H Block” gang on the South Side for robberies and murders.

“We took that model to the East Side with the ‘Vic Boys’ and in an area on the South Side by Struthers ‘The Boss Boys,'” he said. The next criminal organization was on the West Side of Youngstown — members of the “E Block,” Desmond said. “We went in there and identified that, yes, this is gang activity. We identified all of the individuals involved.”

He said through those types of prosecutions, “You are giving an entire neighborhood back to the community, and they are then able to thrive. When you do that, the community has faith in you. When the community can start trusting the prosecutor’s office, they are a lot more willing to cooperate with you, especially in terms of violent crimes,” he said.

Paul J. Gains (D)

AGE: 69

HOME: Boardman

EMPLOYMENT: Mahoning County prosecutor 23 years, private-practice lawyer 14 years, Youngstown police officer 9 years, steelworker 4 years.

EDUCATION: Law degree from University of Akron, bachelor’s degree from Youngstown State University, Ursuline High School graduate.

Marty Desmond (R)

AGE: 46

HOME: Poland

EMPLOYMENT: Private-practice attorney 3 1/2 years; assistant Mahoning County prosecutor 13 years; part-time professor, YSU; law clerk 2 years; Federal Bureau of Investigation, 3 years; Mahoning County Juvenile Court probation officer 1 1/2 years; accounting internship, 1 year.

EDUCATION: Law degree, University of Akron; bachelor’s degree, John Carroll University; graduate of Ursuline High School.