YOUNGSTOWN — Magistrate Thomas Dawson of the Mahoning County Domestic Relations Court, in a divorce proceeding, has awarded Ryan P. Sheridan — the imprisoned former owner of Braking Point Recovery Center in Austintown — the remaining assets in an investment and half of the value of an Austintown home.

He also is awarded a 2011 Cadillac, three boxes of personal items and several other items.

The magistrate also granted Ryan Sheridan, 43, a divorce from Kristin Sheridan and ordered Ryan Sheridan to pay the $24 million he owes the government for the Medicaid fraud he carried out through Braking Point.

The ruling orders Kristin Sheridan to be “held harmless” for Ryan Sheridan’s debts.

Ryan Sheridan remains in federal prison for the crimes but is due for release this November. He told the magistrate he is hoping to be released as early as this July with credit for time served awaiting trial. His sentence was 7 1/2 years.

Ryan Sheridan attended his divorce trial last year by video hookup from federal prison, while Kristin Sheridan attended in person in the Mahoning County Courthouse, along with attorneys for her and for Ryan Sheridan.

Kristin Sheridan will get the other half of the proceeds of a home on Stark Drive in Austintown that belonged to Ryan Sheridan before he and Kristin Sheridan married Aug. 29, 2018. They were considered to be married from Aug. 29, 2018, until the start of their divorce trial in September.

SEARCH WARRANT

Ryan Sheridan testified that he met Kristin in late 2016 when he hired her to clean his house. The couple started living together Oct. 18, 2017, at Ryan Sheridan’s home on Wilderness Street in Leetonia, the same day the federal government executed a search warrant at the home connected to Ryan Sheridan’s criminal case. Authorities seized $390,000 in cash, but most of the household goods and furnishings remained, the ruling states.

Ryan Sheridan was indicted federally the following February on 60 counts of conspiracy to commit Medicaid fraud and later was convicted on conspiracy to commit health fraud, Medicaid fraud, conspiracy to illegally distribute drugs, using the registration number of another to obtain controlled substances, operating premises to distribute illegally controlled substances and money laundering.

During the divorce trial, Kristin Sheridan testified that when Ryan Sheridan was arrested, he decided to transfer the title of the Stark Drive home to Kristin to prevent the government from taking it for restitution of the $24 million he owed. Ryan testified he transferred the property to Kristin so she could manage it, but the magistrate found Kristin’s testimony “much more credible,” the ruling states.

The ruling stated that under normal circumstances, property acquired by one party before marriage should remain with that party. But in cases in which property was transferred to the spouse to avoid creditors, the property becomes a marital asset and not the sole asset of the party who transferred it.

The magistrate ruled that the assets from the sale of the home should be split as a marital asset.

COMPANY FUNDS

Ryan Sheridan had asked in the August 2021 divorce filing that Kristin be ordered to return funds she transferred out of his company, Sheridan Enterprises, through use of a power of attorney he authorized before he went to prison in January 2020.

The company was owed $200,000 as part of an investment product associated with the company Downtown Investments. The investment was valued at $118,000 as of March 1, 2021. Kristin Sheridan used her power of attorney to modify the investment to be allowed to occupy an apartment in Realty Towers downtown at a value of $1,500 per month that would be deducted from the $118,000 asset.

At the end of 2021, she was to receive a $57,000 one-time payment to complete the contract, but Ryan Sheridan stated that the $57,000 payment was never made. Kristin still was living there as of the September 2022 trial, the ruling states.

The magistrate stated in the ruling he could not determine the remaining value of the asset, but he ruled that Ryan Sheridan would be awarded the asset, which Ryan estimated to be worth $43,000.

LIVING EXPENSES

The magistrate found that Ryan Sheridan intended for Kristin to have some of the money from the investment to help her pay living expenses, but Kristin failed to prove during the trial that Ryan gave her the asset as a gift. Ryan did not seek reimbursement of the credits paid for Kristin to live in the Realty Towers, the magistrate noted. The magistrate did not order her to repay the rent, saying, “These arrangements were made with Ryan’s consent and approval.”

The ruling noted that Ryan called Kristin “up to 15 times a day between March 2019 and November 2021” while he was in prison.

Ryan Sheridan did not seek reimbursement for several pieces of real estate and other items belonging to Ryan that Kristin sold, including a motorcycle. And the magistrate found that Kristin did not commit financial misconduct. Ryan asked to get back a 2011 Cadillac and two Peter Lik paintings.

Ryan was granted the Cadillac, but Kristin said relatives of Ryan’s removed items from the home in Leetonia after Ryan went to prison, and she denied knowing the whereabouts of any paintings.

Kristin has three boxes of personal items belonging to Ryan from before their marriage, and the magistrate ordered them returned to Ryan. He also awarded Ryan a piano that Kristin said she gave to a Cleveland vendor to sell on consignment. She did not remember the name of the consignment company. No spousal support was granted to either party.

The parties were granted 14 days to file objections to the ruling. No objections appear to have been filed, according to the court docket.

Mahoning County Common Pleas Court Magistrate James Melone, who works for Judge Anthony D’Apolito, dismissed a separate civil suit in January that Ryan filed against Kristin. It addressed many of the same issues as in the divorce. The dismissal entry stated that it was being dismissed because there had been “no appreciable” activity in the case for 18 months.