YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – The city has retained new counsel to represent it in a lawsuit filed last year against a local businessman and a former public official, after a motion filed earlier by defendants requested that the law firm first used by the city be disqualified from the case.
Victoria L. Ferrise and Hilary F. DeSaussure from the law firm of Brennan, Manna & Diamond LLC, Akron, will now represent the city in its case against developer Dominic Marchiona, two of his companies, and former city Finance Director David Bozanich, according to court papers filed Monday.
In January, Marchionda’s attorney filed a motion asking a Mahoning County Common Pleas Court to disqualify the city’s initial choice for legal counsel, Roetzel & Andress of Akron. The firm recently merged with Brouse McDowell, and two of that firm’s attorneys who are now with Roetzel & Andress had once represented Marchionda and his two companies, posing a conflict of interest.
The motion was unopposed by the city, according to a previous court filing.
The city filed a complaint Nov. 21 against Marchionda, U.S. Campus Suites LLC, Erie Terminal Place LLC and Bozanich, seeking recovery of $834,608. The lawsuit stems from a 2018 public corruption case that ended in plea agreements more than four years ago.
In August 2020, Bozanich – who served as city finance director from 1993 to 2017 – pleaded guilty to one count each of records tampering and bribery, both felonies, and two misdemeanor charges of unlawful compensation of a public official. Bozanich served nearly one year in prison.
That same day, Marchionda pleaded guilty to four counts of tampering with records, all felonies, for creating false invoices to secure city grant money he said would be used for the Erie Terminal redevelopment project. Instead, the funds were used to pay invoices for the Flats at Wick development. He received five years’ probation.
In 2009, Marchionda and his company, U.S. Campus Suites, were in the process of building the Flats at Wick, a housing complex on the corner of Madison Avenue and Elm Street for students attending Youngstown State University. The city supported the project through a $1.2 million water and wastewater grant.
Marchionda received the grant and used that money to purchase a city-owned fire station at the corner from the city for $1 million, and the money was deposited in the city’s general fund. Marchionda kept the additional $200,000 for the project.
The city also spent an additional $3,220 in closing costs to complete the transaction, the complaint says.
All five Mahoning County Common Pleas judges have recused themselves from the matter. The Ohio Supreme Court appointed Judge W. Wyatt McKay to hear the case.
Marchionda and Bozanich have both filed responses to the lawsuit, asking the court to dismiss the complaint, calling it “frivolous” and a waste of taxpayer money, court papers say. Moreover, both lawsuits point out that the city – through City Council and the Board of Control – approved the deal related to the wastewater grants.
“For a number of reasons, the city should have never filed this case,” Bozanich’s attorney, Timothy J. Cunning, said in an answer filed Nov. 18. “After all, the city’s claims are wholly frivolous, as they are based on decades-old transactions that were approved by the Youngstown City Council and the city’s Board of Control.”
In his response, Marchionda said the state of Ohio has already resolved all claims with the defendants, and according to “specific terms of the plea agreement that there is no restitution due.”
Marchionda has also filed a counterclaim that seeks $1 million in damages from the city.
In a filing dated Monday, the city responded, requesting that the court dismiss Marchionda’s counterclaim, noting that the defendants failed to state a claim for relief and that defendants may not, “as a matter of law, recover punitive damages, exemplary damages, attorneys’ fees, or costs against the city of Youngstown.”
Pictured at top: Dominic Marchionda and David Bozanich.