Submitted photo This still photo taken from a doorbell-camera video shows Campbell Law Director Brian Macala, who is running for municipal court judge in Tuesday’s election, on the porch of a home on Hyatt Avenue.

CAMPBELL — City Law Director Brian J. Macala, a candidate for that city’s municipal court judge in Tuesday’s election, faces charges of theft and criminal mischief for allegedly removing his opponent’s campaign literature from a resident’s house.

Police Chief Kevin Sferra said he filed the two misdemeanor charges Friday in municipal court against Macala, who as city law director serves as city prosecutor.

Macala is being issued a summons and will be arraigned Nov. 17, according to a Campbell Municipal Court clerk.

For Macala, the longtime city law director, it’s his second controversial issue as he runs for the judicial seat that will be vacant at the end of the year.

Macala has admitted he forged clients’ signatures on court documents and is seeking a public reprimand for his actions from the Ohio Supreme Court. The Mahoning County Bar Association wants Macala to get a one-year stayed suspension.

A panel of the court’s Board of Professional Conduct had a Monday hearing with a recommendation to the full board expected Dec. 8. The final decision on discipline rests with the Supreme Court.

Macala, who ran unopposed in the Democratic primary for the judgeship, faces Mark J. Kolmacic, who filed as an independent, in Tuesday’s election. Incumbent Patrick P. Cunning couldn’t seek re-election this year because of the state’s age limit on judges.

Annette Kelly of Hyatt Avenue provided video to Kolmacic of her front porch allegedly showing Macala removing a piece of campaign literature previously dropped off by his opponent on her mailbox.

The video shows Macala putting the paper in his suit jacket’s right pocket and leaving behind his own campaign materials. Another paper of similar size was already in that same pocket.

The incident is alleged to have occurred Sept. 24. Kolmacic filed a police report Oct. 19.

“What’s astonishing is he would do this with disciplinary action pending,” Kolmacic said of Macala. “It’s unfathomable he would do something like that.”

Kelly filed the same misdemeanor charges Thursday in court as Sferra. But Sferra said Friday there was an undisclosed issue with Kelly’s filing and her complaint would likely be dismissed.

Sferra said his plan, which he carried out, was to speak Friday with Cunning and inform him that he as police chief was filing the charges after talking to the Mahoning County Prosecutor’s Office.

Sferra said Cunning told him to “prepare the charges.”

Cunning will recuse himself from the case and will seek a visiting judge, said Sferra and a court clerk. A special prosecutor also will be appointed, Sferra and the clerk said.

Sferra said he provided Kelly’s doorbell-camera video of Macala on her front porch to the county prosecutor’s office.

The prosecutor’s office determined the video didn’t show a felony and referred it back to Campbell police.

Prosecutor Gina DeGenova said her office handles felony cases and none were committed in the video so “our office declined prosecution” as it “has no jurisdiction to proceed further.”

She said: “Given the parties involved, our office provided guidance to the (police) department on how to proceed with the presentation of misdemeanor charges, if appropriate.”

Sferra said: “It’s a rough situation for me to be in. It’s a crazy situation, and I’m stuck in the middle.”

Macala referred comment Friday to John B. Juhasz, his attorney.

Juhasz said he couldn’t comment until he saw the charges from the police.

Asked if the issue was politically motivated by Kolmacic, Juhasz said: “If the person isn’t even the victim (who filed the police report) how does that sound? That’s an interesting definition of victim.”

But Kolmacic said he is a victim.

“It is my literature he is taking,” Kolmacic said. “I’m also required under my oath to report a crime by a lawyer. I’m upset about this. This isn’t mudslinging. This isn’t hearsay. It’s captured on video.”

Kolmacic added that Macala has “hung his hat on the isolated (forgery) incident with the disciplinary matter (to ask for a public reprimand). But with this it makes me wonder how much else he has done. I can’t believe he would stoop to that level. He was trying to thwart my efforts.”

Kolmacic said when Kelly contacted him saying she had the Macala video, “I didn’t want to believe that was happening. But there it is on video.”

FORGERY ISSUE

The complaint filed by the Mahoning County Bar Association against Macala, for a case from his private law practice in Salem,states that on May 17, 2022, he signed the names of five people on probate filings regarding two estates in order to get a time extension.

Macala admits to filing the documents with forged signatures in Mahoning County Probate Court.

He was fired by the executor of the two estates after the forgeries were discovered by his clients.

No money was paid to Macala prior to his termination, according to a joint filing Oct. 23 by David C. Comstock Jr., representing the bar association, and Juhasz, who is also representing Macala in this case.

That filing states Macala has no prior disciplinary record and “has made full and free disclosure to the bar investigator, to relator (the bar association) and to the board and exhibited a cooperative attitude toward the proceedings,” and “is of good character and reputation.”

Macala also apologized to the executor / fiduciary of the two estates “for his actions and expressed an understanding of (her) decision to terminate him regarding the forgeries,” the joint filing reads.

Macala was elected law director in 1995 and lost to Kolmacic in 2007. Macala beat Kolmacic for law director in 2011 and has held it ever since. He isn’t seeking re-election this year to instead run for judge.

The court’s jurisdiction is Campbell and Coitsville.