The next Mahoning County prosecutor will be an intelligent, experienced litigator.

But whom? Republican challenger Lynn Maro or incumbent Democrat Gina DeGenova.

The two of them come from different legal backgrounds.

Maro has been a criminal defense attorney for 23 of her 33 years in practice. DeGenova was appointed the Mahoning County interim prosecutor on Nov. 22, 2022, after Paul Gains announced his retirement, effective Dec. 1, 2022. The Mahoning County Democratic Party Central Committee appointed her to complete the remaining two years of Gains’ term on Jan. 7, 2023.

DeGenova worked for Gains for 17 years, much of it primarily as a civil attorney in the prosecutor’s office. She served as legal counsel for lawsuits and as the attorney for sheriffs Randall Wellington and Jerry Greene.

DeGenova said she has expanded her role in criminal cases since taking over for Gains. She has taken on a central role in high-profile murder cases, including sentencing hearings for notorious Mahoning County killers such as Brandon Crump Jr. and Steve W. Green III. Crump was sentenced to 52 years to life in prison for the murder of 4-year-old Rowan Sweeney in Struthers. Green got life without parole for the murder of Ashley Lockhart, the mother of his child, in Austintown.

Both litigators delivered compelling cases during endorsement interviews with The Vindicator editorial board in October.

Maro has long been a critic of Gains’ work as prosecutor.

“For about 23 years … I’ve complained about the same dysfunctional things over and over again — rules and laws not being followed, cases being … dismissed or not not guilty, or delayed because rules were not being followed,” Maro told the editorial board.

She alleged that trend continued after DeGenova replaced Gains.

“Fifteen percent of our murder cases in the past four years have been dismissed or not guilty,” Maro said, adding that the number is zero in Trumbull County, where Dennis Watkins is the veteran leader of the prosecutor’s office.

Trumbull officials confirmed that the number is zero during the last two years. Maro said she looked up the numbers for murder cases in both counties through June 30, 2024 in the common pleas court databases. She also said too many Mahoning murder cases result in lesser charges.

“Seventy percent of our murder cases are reduced to manslaughter in Mahoning County. That’s outrageous,” Maro said.

DeGenova provided the editorial board with statistics for the last two years since she took office and the dismissal / not guilty rate was 14.3%. She said two cases charged and convicted as involuntary manslaughter should be included, which would reduce the percentage to 12.5. She also noted that if 19 pending aggravated murder and murder cases are added to the equation, the percentage drops even further.

As for murder charges eventually being amended to manslaughter via plea bargains, DeGenova countered that those changes “happen all over Ohio and are not unique to Mahoning County.”

She added: “What Ms. Maro is saying is we should never resolve cases (through a plea), and we should go to trial on every case. Justice would stop at its nose. There are a lot of factors that go into it. Are there resolutions in some cases? Of course. But these are convictions with huge sentences.”

The editorial board found Maro and DeGenova to be formidable litigators. They come from different legal backgrounds, with Maro working as a criminal defense attorney for much of her career and DeGenova working for one of Ohio’s most well-known prosecutors. We give a slight edge to DeGenova, who has been doing the job of leading the prosecutor’s office for the better of two years now.

The legal filing by attorney Martin Desmond, who requested a special prosecutor to look into possible criminal conduct by DeGenova and Mahoning County Commissioners David Ditzler and Carol Rimedio-Righetti — related to the 2022 firing of county employee Ricky Morrison — was not considered in making this endorsement.

The county paid a $175,000 settlement and rehired Morrison in 2023. But Desmond’s filing includes allegations made by DeGenova’s estranged husband, Steve Zawrotuk. He alleges that he overheard his wife having a conversation with Rimedio-Righetti about Morrison’s termination. The filing quotes Zawrotuk saying that Rimedio-Righetti and Ditzler “wanted to fire Ricky Morrison because he voted for Geno DiFabio against Carol Rimedio-Righetti in the 2022 election (for commissioner).”