Thursday, May 29, 2014YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio -- The mayor of this city, attorney John McNally, uttered just four words, “Thank you, your honor,” this morning in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court as he stood with his attorney, Lynn Maro, as she entered a plea of not guilty on multiple public corruption and bribery charges.
McNally and his co-defendants, Mahoning County Auditor Michael Sciortino and attorney Martin Yavorcik, were arraigned this morning by Judge Pamela A. Barker. Like the mayor, Sciortino and Martin Yavorcik pleaded not guilty.
The proceedings were streamed live at WFMJ.com.
Bond for all three was set at $15,000 and they were ordered not to travel outside the state without court permission. A pretrial was set for June 5 before Judge Janet R. Burnside
Each walked separately out of the courtroom through a side door that led to where they would be booked into the county jail.
McNally, Sciortino and Yavorcik were charged May 14 in a 73-count indictment handed down that morning by a Cuyahoga County grand jury.
McNally is accused of 34 counts of felony and misdemeanor crimes that include engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity, conspiracy, bribery, tampering with records, perjury, money laundering, telecommunications fraud, theft in office and unlawful compensation. Sciortino faces 21 counts; Yavorcik is indicted on 27 counts.
McNally, then a county commissioner, and Sciortino were indicted in 2010 for allegedly conspiring with Anthony Cafaro Sr., then CEO of The Cafaro Co., to block the county’s purchase of the building. The Cafaro Co. was renting office space to the county Department of Jobs and Family Services at the McGuffey Mall on Garland Avenue on the East Side; Jobs and Family Services was the sole tenant and the prospects of finding another tenant were bleak.
Those charges were dismissed without prejudice after the FBI refused to share the evidence they had gathered in their separate investigation with the county prosecutor, Paul Gains.
Interviewed May 15, one day after the latest indictments, the mayor said, “This drama won’t end but I’m convinced during that course of time -- six, seven, almost eight years ago -- I took the right action to protect what I thought were the interests of the taxpayers. Over time, quite frankly, I think I’ve been proven correct about that.”
Sciortino said May 14, "They've been looking at this stuff for four years, and now it's an election year. Here we go again, I guess."
BACKGROUND:
McNally Minimizes Charges; 'I've Been Proven Correct'
Oakhill Indictments List 'Pattern of Corrupt Activity'
Copyright 2014 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
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