Dimora gives up home after conviction on 33 corruption charges, says Patriot Act hurt him, can feds craft testimonies for witnesses that cut deals?

Former Cuyahoga County Commissioner Jimmy Dimora, the prior chair of the Cuyahoga County Democratic Party whom a federal jury convicted of 33 of 34 counts of crimes in office last week, including racketeering.

By Kathy Wray Coleman, Editor, Cleveland Urban News.Com and The Kathy Wray Coleman Online News Blog.com
(www.kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com) and (www.clevelandurbannews.com)
(kathy@kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com)

AKRON-Ohio-Former Cuyahoga County Commissioner Jimmy Dimora reached a court settlement yesterday on what he owes the federal government after his conviction last week on 33 of 34 counts of crimes in office including theft, racketeering and taking bribes on county contracts for things such as home improvements, Las Vegas junkets and expensive prostitutes.

The former chair of the Cuyahoga County Democratic Party who joins a host of other former elected officials and county party affiliates in losing to the federal government, including two former judges, agreed to give up his half of his interest in his beloved home in Independence worth more than $438 thousand, his commissioner's pension of $123, 283, and sports memorabilia worth about $3 thousand.

His wife Lori Dimora will keep her half of the home and Dimora's $50 thousand a year pension from Bedford Hts where he was a city sanitation worker and a mayor before becoming commissioner.

He will also forfeit money from all savings accounts in his name.

But the settlement agreement also states that in order for the federal government to secure restitution, the Dimora family home will be sold six months after Dimora unsuccessfully exhausts the appellate process, if he loses.

Proceeds from the anticipated sale would be split between Lori Dimora and the federal government, though she has the option of keeping the home if she pays her husband's part.

The U.S. District Attorney's Office said that Dimora' conviction should be taken as a message to other elected officials that want to trample upon the public trust, and that what came out during his celebrated trial is a reflection of the unprecedented public corruption that plaques Cuyahoga County.

"It's sad for the people of Cuyahoga County, who learned over the course of this trial that some of their elected officials were there for self-service, not public service," said spokesman Michael
Tobin, a former Cleveland Plain Dealer Newspaper reporter. "It's sad for the people of Cuyahoga County, who learned about the pervasiveness of corruption in shocking detail during this trial."

Dimora, 56, did not take the stand at his 10 week trial in Akron before Federal District Court Judge Sara Lioi, who came under fire last year from community activists for handing former Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas Judge Steven Terry, who is Black, a maximum six year sentence and giving Bridget McCafferty, a White former common pleas judge who faced 50 years in prison, only 14 months.

Terry was convicted of mail fraud and fixing a foreclosure case and McCafferty was convicted by a separate jury of 10 counts of lying to the FBI on whether she was asked to fix cases for Democratic party affiliates, among other lies.

Their convictions are on appeal.

Lioi, who approved the former commissioner's restitution settlement to the federal government, stripped Dimora, whom federal prosecutors say boldly ran a mob-type criminal enterprise from his home in Independence and the offices of the Cuyahoga County Board of Commissioners, of his bond when he was convicted last week. She then ordered him handcuffed and taken to jail. She will sentence him on July 25.

And while some Democratic party officials say that since Dimora is a Democrat they expect the judge to hand him as much time as possible as he faces 16 to 20 years by federal guidelines, they also agree that what sentence he might have coming is simply par for the course, given the arrogance by which he committed the plethora of crimes against the public trust.

His defense team argued at trial that the hundreds of thousands of dollars in gifts he received through home improvements and other junctures from those that got county contracts and other amenities were only gifts, a puzzling defense since taking gifts in exchange for favors from the public coffers, whether contracts or jobs, is unlawful.

His lead attorney said indirectly yesterday that Lioi was unfair at trial and that he will appeal.

“There will be an appeal. There was evidence we had hoped to get to the jurors that we were unable to do so we will definitely be filing an appeal," Attorney William Whitaker told reporters. "We’re disappointed with the verdict.”

Dimora still has friends though, and they say the prosecutorial process is unfair and fixed because the more than 60 Democratic party affiliates brought down by the federal government through convictions or negotiated guilty pleas since the homes and offices of Dimora and others were raided by over 200 FBI and IRA agents in 2008, are Democrats, or friends of the Democrats.

They include former county auditor Frank Russo, who is facing 21 years in prison after pleading guilty to a host of crimes in office, including theft and bribery.

Russo, whose cooperation with federal authorities is expected to take years off his hefty sentence, was the key witness against Dimora, whom a jury convicted in a land slide after seven days of deliberations.

He and Dimora were probably the most powerful members of the county Democratic party in recent decades, a reason, say legal experts, that their corruption was allowed to flourish for so long. Dimora was elected party chair in 1994, but resigned in 2009 amid pressure from party officials.

A source close to a county Democratic party affiliate that took a plea deal and agreed to testify in the ongoing county corruption probe for a lighter sentence said that federal prosecutors and the FBI are allegedly telling them what to say on the witness stand, and that if they do not say it exactly as rehearsed "the deal is off."

"That's what happens when the federal government cuts deals in political corruption cases, and they have a lot of leeway in racketeering cases because of the Patriot Act," said a Cleveland criminal defense attorney under condition of anonymity.

Dimora lays blame for his fall from grace on Plain Dealer officials, the Cuyahoga County Republican party, and what he believes was an invasion of his privacy by the FBI.

He made mention of the Patriot Act before a pretrial hearing in 2010, saying the FBI just went haywire with its wire taps that were ultimately used against him at trial, listening to his, his family's, and the friends of his family phone conversations.

“American citizens...under this Patriot Act, they have the right to wiretap you, you, you,” Dimora shouted to reporters.

And those wire taps did prove devastating to the defense at trial, and, according legal experts, were the smoking gun that brought the stinging victory to federal prosecutors anxious to get a win, and a win, and a win, from the little guy that made a couple of thousand dollars on a bribe to the likes of Dimora and Russo.

Michael Gabor, Dimora's former driver, was also convicted last week in federal district court in Akron, but on eight charges of bribery and conspiracy, including using $10 thousand to fix his divorce case, activity that raises speculation on whether more federal indictments against judges allegedly embroiled in the county corruption probe are forthcoming.

He was led away in handcuffs too, and will be sentenced also on July 25.

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