Staff file photo...Mahoning County Prosecutor Paul Gains is expected to announce his retirement at a news conference today.

YOUNGSTOWN — Paul Gains, who has been Mahoning County prosecutor for the past 26 years, is expected to announce his retirement today.

His office announced a news conference at 11 a.m. regarding Gains, without stating the reason, but sources say he will announce his retirement. There are two years left on Gains’ four-year term.

On Thursday, he declined to comment until the news conference.

Gains is perhaps best known for two things: Being shot by an intruder working for mobster Lennie Strollo in Gains’ home on Christmas Eve 1996 in a failed attempt to prevent Gains from taking office; and being sued by a former assistant county prosecutor, Martin Desmond, who also unsuccessfully ran against Gains for prosecutor in 2020 while Desmond’s legal action was pending.

Gains, 71, a Democrat, also worked 14 years as a defense attorney, nine years as a Youngstown police officer and four years as a steelworker.

During the campaign in 2020, Gains focused heavily on his accomplishments in providing legal services to the townships. When he was first 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.

Gains’ office also 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 County Line Road in Austintown, he has said.

Gains defeated Desmond, a Republican, 61,453 to 51,110 votes in the 2020 general election, but Desmond claimed a different type of victory 17 months later — when Desmond settled his legal action against Gains for $550,000.

TARGETED BY MOB

Strollo’s enterprise was responsible for a conspiracy to murder Gains days before Gains took office as prosecutor, federal documents stated.

Gains was shot Dec. 24, 1996, by an intruder in his home and was critically wounded, but survived. Mark Batcho was sentenced to 18 years in prison for the attempted assassination and for shooting attorney Gary Van Brocklin in the leg in April 1996, The Vindicator reported.

Batcho remains in the Ohio prison system with an expected eligibility for release date of July 15, 2027, according to the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction website.

In 1999, three men who arranged the shootings of Gains and Van Brocklin were convicted of working for the mafia in Youngstown.

Bernard Altshuler, 68, at the time; Lavance Turnage, then 26; and Jeffrey Riddle, then 38, were convicted in an investigation that also brought a deal with Strollo and indictments against public officials.

Altshuler, Turnage and Riddle, all of Youngstown, were sentenced to life in prison with no parole on the convictions of racketeering, conspiracy to racketeering and illegal gambling.

Prosecutors claimed Strollo’s three employees arranged the 1996 killing of Strollo rival Ernie Biondillo and the woundings of Gains and Van Brocklin, a former prosecutor.

Federal investigations revealed that Gains’ assassination attempt was ordered by Strollo because Gains would not cooperate with the local mob.

As part of Strollo’s guilty plea in U.S. District Court in Cleveland, however, Strollo was not required to admit his involvement in Gains’ shooting.

At the time, Assistant U.S. Attorney Craig Morford said Strollo wanted Gains dead because Strollo had an “in” with former Mahoning County Prosecutor James Philomena and could fix cases.

DESMOND SUIT

The Desmond settlement came the night before a State Personnel Board of Review hearing was set to resume in Columbus with additional testimony on issues, such as an FBI investigation of another assistant county prosecutor under Gains whom Desmond argued should have been referred for prosecution.

Gains later agreed that the assistant prosecutor committed misdeeds but said he was not concerned about being cross-examined on the FBI documents. He said the assistant prosecutor was disciplined for things he did in 2014 in relation to a female defendant in one of the county courts, for whom the assistant prosecutor prepared a motion for early release.

Gains had fired Desmond in 2017, after Desmond served as assistant prosecutor 13 years, alleging Desmond uttered false claims of an ethical violation by another assistant prosecutor.

In 2019, the 6th District Court of Appeals sided with Desmond when he appealed a common pleas court judge’s decision that Desmond did not qualify for protection under the state’s whistleblower statute.

Desmond appealed his termination to the State Personnel Board of Review and sued Gains for defamation. He alleged corruption in the prosecutor’s office under Gains while trying to unseat Gains as prosecutor in 2020, and also in his legal action against Gains.

Among the allegations Desmond made was that Gains ignored a conflict of interest when he allowed Nick Modarelli, an assistant prosecutor, to handle a 2018 case involving Modarelli’s second cousin in which a felony was reduced to a low-level misdemeanor.

“He vacated a felony offense of violence conviction — permitted it to happen,” Desmond said of Gains.

When asked about the case, Gains said in 2020 he did nothing “inappropriate or improper.”

When the resolution of the SPBR case and lawsuit with the county’s insurance carrier was announced, Desmond said his 4 1/2-year battle cleared his name and “exposed what was going on in the prosecutor’s office.” He said Gains gave up the fight because he knew he had lost.

erunyan@vindy.com