YOUNGSTOWN — The city’s law department has determined Councilwoman Amber White is a legal resident of the 7th Ward despite owning a Liberty home with her estranged husband.

White recently showed documentation to the law department that she has moved out of her rented Mount Vernon Avenue home in Youngstown to a different residence in the 7th Ward, said Lou D’Apolito, a city deputy law director.

The residency of White, an independent who started serving a four-year term in January 2024, was brought into question because she and her husband, John, who is seeking to run as an independent candidate for mayor, own a house in Liberty at 1162 Tibbetts Wick Road, which they purchased March 17, 2022, for $65,000. They rent the Youngstown house on Mount Vernon Avenue.

John White faces felony charges of disrupting public service and domestic violence after a May 2 arrest at the Liberty home they own after he allegedly caused damage and acted violently toward his wife.

John White has been in Trumbull County jail since Tuesday for allegedly repeatedly violating the conditions of his bond to stay away from his wife as well as a temporary protection order approved May 19 by Judge Beth A. Smith of Mahoning County Domestic Relations Court.

On that same day, Amber White filed for divorce and child support services.

The protection order was provided to John White, whose eligibility to run for mayor is in question, at the Liberty home, according to the court docket which also lists the Mount Vernon Avenue address as his residency.

D’Apolito said after Amber White showed she had moved to a new address in the 7th Ward when she responded to an inquiry about her residency, he was satisfied she lives there.

“I talked to her about some information about a residence in Trumbull County and she said she is going through domestic stuff and is living in the ward,” he said. “I can’t prove there is something other than that. We’re not going to proceed any further. I’m not going to pursue it. I told her this could be explored by others. But I can’t see where I can prove where she lives.”

Amber White said: “I gave them what they asked for and they came to their own conclusion. It was the last thing I needed to worry about, but I wasn’t worried about it. I took care of that and now I need to focus on my family.”

White also changed her voting address with the Mahoning County Board of Elections on May 12 from Mount Vernon Avenue to a different home in the 7th Ward.

If it can be proved that Amber White isn’t a resident of the city’s 7th Ward she could be removed as a member of council.

BOND REVOKED

Trumbull County Common Pleas Court Judge Sarah Thomas Kovoor revoked John White’s $2,500 bond Tuesday at the request of the county prosecutor’s office. The judge ordered him to stay in jail until at least his next hearing, set for 9 a.m. June 13.

In a motion to revoke bond, Gabriel Wildman, an assistant county prosecutor, wrote that White continued to violate the conditions of that bond and a temporary protection order by repeatedly calling his wife and accessing her cell phone and deactivating her service.

Amber White called 911 on May 2 to say her husband was angry over an article that day in The Vindicator that states his eligibility to run as an independent candidate for Youngstown mayor is being questioned. She told police he asked her to run for mayor and when she refused, he became angry and violent — and this wasn’t the first time.

Amber White told police that her husband damaged their Liberty house, including throwing a crockpot with food at her that ended up going through the front window, threw all of their car keys onto the garage roof, grabbed their juvenile son from her and threatened to “burn the house down as well as burn the vehicles.” While talking to Liberty police, Amber White told police her husband grabbed her cellphone and threw it into a watery ditch.

Girard Municipal Court Judge Jeffrey D. Adler revoked John White’s bond — he posted 10% of a $12,500 bond after his arrest — on May 7 for having contact with his wife, which is prohibited under the terms of his bond. But Adler didn’t put White in jail.

When White appeared May 14 in court, Adler instead agreed to recall the bond “with the condition of no contact. We’ve had this conversation before. No contact means no contact, whatsoever, none, through a third party, through electronic means, anything, alright?”

White agreed.

Adler said, “If you violate these terms I’ll have to revoke your bond again.” White agreed.

During that court appearance, White waived his rights to a preliminary hearing and had his case bound over to a grand jury. He hasn’t been indicted as of Friday.

Only two days after his appearance in front of Adler, Wildman wrote White showed up at the house of a Youngstown woman asking about his wife and said he would “burn the whole city to the ground before he let somebody take (her) away from him,” and that he’s been chasing her for 15 years and “would never stop.”

White allegedly texted his wife on May 25 from an unknown number referring to the couple by their nicknames and sent references to her location and what she was doing at the time of the messages, according to Wildman’s motion and screenshots of the messages.

Right after his arrest, White repeatedly called his wife, accessed her cell phone and deactivated it as well as hack her various accounts, locking her out and changing her passwords, Wildman wrote.

John White has more than 35 criminal convictions, according to various court documents, with felony convictions including receiving stolen property, aggravated assault, breaking and entering and being a felon in possession of a firearm.

He was sentenced to prison for the latter three convictions.

ELIGIBILITY ISSUE

As in 2021, John White’s eligibility is questioned as it relates to a city charter provision for mayoral candidates.

The provision reads: “The mayor shall be an elector and resident of the city for the five years immediately preceding the mayor’s election, and not less than 30 years of age.”

White registered to vote Feb. 5, 2021.

It will be up to the Mahoning County Board of Elections to determine his eligibility when it meets July 8 to certify independent candidates. The board will rely on a legal opinion from Youngstown Law Director Lori Shells Simmons.

Tom McCabe, elections board director, said White “is probably not qualified” and he expects the law department’s legal opinion will be the same as it was four years ago.

When White attempted to run in 2021 for mayor as an independent — as he filed to do this year — Jeff Limbian, then the city’s law director, ruled June 12, 2021, that White wasn’t eligible to be a mayoral candidate based on his interpretation of the city charter and state law. The board of elections agreed with the decision on July 6, 2021, and didn’t certify White to the ballot.

The city’s law department is expected to heavily rely on that 2021 opinion and rule White ineligible.

Kenneth D. Myers, White’s attorney in the mayoral issue, wrote in a May 5 email to Shells Simmons that his client is eligible to run and his candidacy wouldn’t violate the city charter.

The other reason White wasn’t certified in 2021 was because he voted in the Democratic primary after filing as an independent for mayor. Voting in a partisan primary after filing as an independent in Ohio disqualifies a candidate from running.