YOUNGSTOWN — A local attorney’s attempt to recover funds stolen by former Mahoning County judge Diane Vettori Caraballo and turn it over to two animal protective groups has been left for U.S. District Court officials to handle.

A leader of one of these groups wants to know: “What did she do with all of that money? … Where is it?”

Attorney Douglas Neuman of Niles filed a foreclosure in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court in November 2019 seeking to recover funds by forcing the sale of properties controlled by Diane Vettori Caraballo. A visiting probate judge ordered Vettori Caraballo to pay restitution of $185,678 in 2019 for thefts from the estate of Dolores Falgiani of Boardman, for whom Neuman was administrator.

But Neuman requested that the suit be dismissed in April, and Judge John Durkin of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court approved the dismissal.

Falgiani willed about $300,000 to various individuals and asked that Animal Charity Humane Society of Boardman and Angels for Animals of Canfield split the remainder of her estate upon her death, according to her will. Falgiani died in March 2016.

MONEY COLLECTION

In a filing in Mahoning County Probate Court, Neuman explains the complaint was dismissed because the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio is now trying to collect the money through the federal criminal case prosecuted against Vettori Caraballo. Neuman stated that it would be duplication to continue to try to collect the money through the common pleas court.

Furthermore, the federal judgment against Vettori Caraballo is $328,300 plus interest — larger than the one in effect in Mahoning County. Neuman stated that pursuing the money at two levels creates unnecessary expense that would reduce the amount of money that can be ultimately distributed.

Retired former Trumbull County Probate Court Judge Thomas Swift, who handled the Falgiani estate case for Mahoning County by assignment from the Ohio Supreme Court, said he believes having federal officials collect the funds would be most efficient because federal officials are the best equipped with facilities and personnel to collect the money.

Swift approved the closing of Falgiani’s probate case last week. A judgment entry states that the estate has been “fully and lawfully administered,” and Neuman has been discharged from his duties as administrator of the estate.

An attempt to reach Neuman by telephone for this story was not successful.

Vettori Caraballo was sentenced to 30 months in prison in June 2019 for taking $100,200 from Falgiani’s estate while doing legal work for Falgiani in Vettori’s private legal practice. Vettori Caraballo also was part-time judge of the Mahoning County Area Court in Sebring.

A federal court filing states that the U.S. District Court has a lien of $328,300 plus interest of about 2 percent dating back to June 2019 against Vettori Caraballo as a result of the thefts.

At the time Neuman’s suit was filed in 2019, Neuman had identified three properties in which he believed Vettori Caraballo had an interest and asked the court to foreclose on them to satisfy the judgment lien.

The filing stated that Vettori Caraballo was a one-fourth owner of a piece of property in Craig Beach, that she and her husband had recently transferred another piece of property in Craig Beach to someone else and owned another piece of property in Boardman.

ANIMAL PROTECTORS

Neuman signed a $173,618 judgment lien in the case Aug. 2 that assigned funds recovered from Vettori Caraballo equally divided between Animal Charity Humane Society of Boardman and Angels for Animals of Canfield if and when such money is collected.

Diane Less of Angels for Animals said Angels received $7,000 from the federal court several months after Vettori Caraballo was sentenced and several checks for less than $100 since then, but she wonders where the rest of the money is.

“What did she do with all of that money? Is it in a mattress somewhere? I was in federal court. She admitted she took it. Where is it?”

Less said Vettori’s actions are “disgusting. How could you steal money from a charity? You are the executor of that lady’s estate. That is a very highly trusted position. And then she’s an attorney and a judge. It’s like, you gotta be kidding me.”

Vettori Caraballo “admitted to stealing $328,000 in federal court,” Less said.

Less said she spoke at Vettori Caraballo’s sentencing hearing, saying Vettori Caraballo “stole from helpless animals and a little, old trusting lady.”

Less said the thefts cost the lives of a lot of cats and dogs that might have been saved if the organizations would have received the money Falgiani intended for them to get. Falgiani liked cats, Less said.

‘CAMP CUPCAKE’

According to the U.S. Bureau of Prisons, Vettori Caraballo was taken into its custody Sept. 6, 2019, and was released Oct. 21 this year. The last institution where she was housed was the Federal Prison Camp Alderson, a minimum security female prison in Alderson, W.Va. Bureau of Prisons official Randilee Giamusso said in an email that it does not provide additional information on inmates, for privacy and safety reasons.

The prison was nicknamed “Camp Cupcake” by members of the news media when Martha Stewart was sentenced to a five-month term there, according to NBC News.

Daniel Ball, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s office for the Northern District of Ohio, said in an emailed response recently that restitution in the Vettori Caraballo case “is being collected … according to the (federal) court’s order.” Ball added that the U.S. Attorney’s Office “is enforcing the criminal restitution judgment using legal and administrative remedies.”

He said the federal government is limited by the federal Privacy Act on what information it can provide on matters such as this.

As of August 2020, Vettori Caraballo’s case file indicates that the only assets recovered so far were $54.29 in two bank accounts and the contents of a safe deposit box in Huntington National Bank in Youngstown.

The box contained undisclosed items that were going to be purchased by Bluestone Trading Co. The proceeds were going to be turned over to the U.S. District Court Clerk of Courts office to pay restitution.

No court entry indicates the amount of money generated from the sale.

Also in the box were photographs, papers, a rosary, gold-colored charm with necklace and a metal / iron cross. They were released to attorney John Juhasz to return to Vettori Caraballo, a federal court entry stated.

erunyan@vindy.com