Ex-Youngstown mayor’s corruption charges dropped

YOUNGSTOWN — All corruption charges against former Youngstown Mayor Charles Sammarone were dropped during his plea and sentencing hearing Monday morning in a 2018 public corruption case.

Sammarone, while serving as mayor, and former city Finance Director David Bozanich were accused of accepting bribes from associates of downtown developer Dominic Marchionda in order to secure city contracts. Those three and several others were indicted in August 2018 for the alleged “pay to play” scheme.

In a plea arrangement with special state prosecutors, Sammarone, 77, pleaded guilty to two felony counts of tampering with records, for an unrelated failure to report two years’ worth of income from rental properties he owned in Florida. The court dismissed all his remaining counts including a first-degree felony count of engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity and nine felony counts of bribery.

Mahoning County Common Pleas Court Judge Maureen Sweeney sentenced Sammarone to five years of probation and ordered him to complete 30 days of community service with the Mahoning County Sheriff’s Office.

Sammarone’s attorney, John Shultz of Youngstown, called the prosecution “one of the weaker cases I’ve confronted in my career.”

“[Sammarone] would rather admit a plea to aggravated murder than bribery because he contends he has not taken a penny from anyone,” Shultz said during open court.

Former MS Consultants CFO Raymond Briya was accused of offering more than $100,000 in cash and other gifts to Bozanich and about $10,000 to Sammarone to line up city work for the firm. He pleaded guilty in September to attempted bribery and is now helping with prosecution of the other cases.

However, Shultz confirmed Monday Sammarone, whose charges were separated, would not testify against Bozanich or Marchionda.

“The reason the criminal enterprise charge was dismissed — we’ve contended all along Chuck wasn’t involved in that,” Shultz said, claiming Sammarone didn’t even become acquainted with Marchionda until after they were indicted.

“[Sammarone] has nothing to add to enhance the prosecution’s effort against the other codefendants at all.”

Sammarone appeared to cry while reading an apology statement to his family and the Youngstown community.

“I admit the mistake. I accept my responsibility,” he said.

Evidence against Sammarone included a 2014 conversation recorded in secret by attorney David Betras, Mahoning County’s former Democratic Party chairman, on an unrelated matter, in which Sammarone is heard saying “anything is legal if no one else knows about it; I’ve been around a long time” and “one hand washes the other.”

Shultz said Monday he thinks prosecutors intended to use that evidence to illustrate Sammarone’s character flaws, but asserted they were taken out of context.

“That’s the way members of Chuck’s generation speak,” he said.

The tampering charges to which Sammarone pleaded guilty are related to income the former mayor made on a condominium he owned in Florida but failed to include on financial disclosure forms for 2012 and 2013 — at least $1,000 each year, Shultz said.

Special prosecutor Daniel Kasaris declined to comment on the case following the trial, instead deferring to Ohio Attorney General spokesperson Steve Irwin.

Irwin also declined comment Monday, stating Sammarone’s case remains related to other ongoing investigations and criminal proceedings — presumably the charges against Bozanich and Marchionda.

In August 2018, special state prosecutors now trying the cases revealed a 101-count indictment against Sammarone, Bozanich, Marchionda and others, detailing how Bozanich accepted bribes from those related to Marchionda to secure $1.2 million in city wastewater funds to be put toward Marchionda’s Flats at Wick downtown student housing project.

Marchionda is accused of misspending at least $600,000 of that money on himself, according to the indictment.

Marchionda and Bozanich have pleaded not guilty and are set for trial June 1.

This story was originally published March 17, 2020 at 4:52 AM with the headline "Ex-Youngstown mayor’s corruption charges dropped."