Staff photo / Ed Runyan Former Mahoning County Sheriff’s deputy Donald F. Belosic, left, speaks to Judge Anthony D’Apolito of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court beside his attorney, John McCaffrey.

YOUNGSTOWN — The attorney for Donald F. Belosic, 51, of Canfield, told Mahoning County Common Pleas Judge Anthony D’Apolito Tuesday that Belosic resigned from the sheriff’s office late last year and “will no longer be able to work in law enforcement” for improperly attempting to use a law-enforcement-only database in 2020.

Attorney John McCaffrey said Belosic, a veteran of nearly 30 years at the sheriff’s office, turned over his Ohio Peace Officers Training Academy certificate to special prosecutors Tuesday as part of the resolution of the misdemeanor criminal case.

Belosic pleaded guilty Tuesday to improperly attempting to use the law-enforcement-only Ohio Law Enforcement Gateway database 14 times when he was a deputy to provide information to a private investigator Belosic worked with before the investigator retired as a special agent for the FBI working in Mahoning County, according to McCaffrey and special prosecutors.

D’Apolito sentenced Belosic to three years of probation and ordered him to perform 80 hours of community service and pay a $250 fine, in addition to the requirement of turning over his OPATA certificate.

Mary Grace Tokmenko, an assistant Cuyahoga County prosecutor, who was one of two special prosecutors who handled the case, said the offense happened in 2020 when Belosic was an active Mahoning County sheriff’s deputy and had access to the Ohio Law Enforcement Gateway.

It is used to help criminal justice agencies “connect, solve and prevent crimes,” according to the Ohio Attorney General’s office. The Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation, which is part of the Ohio Attorney General’s office, investigated the matter in 2024, Tokmenko said.

She said an associate of Belosic’s was working as a private investigator and requested and worked with Belosic to “obtain multiple amounts of information from OHLEG.

“So what was happening was the private investigator was surveilling some people — I believe the defendant also was — and the private investigator would ask for a certain license plate to be run or a name or address,” she said.

She said the BCI investigation showed Belosic did this 14 times “outside of the scope of his job” and provided the information to the “non-law-enforcement individual.”

Much of the evidence collected during the investigation came from the sheriff’s-department-issued cell phone of Belosic, she said. She thought the resolution reached between her, fellow Cuyahoga County Assistant Prosecutor Andrew Rogalski, Belosic and his attorney was “fair.”

She said Belosic turned over to her and Rogalski his Ohio Peace Officers Training Academy certificate, “as this was one of the main conditions of this plea.”

D’Apolito, who said he had never met Belosic before Tuesday, and therefore did not think he had any conflict in hearing the case, asked the special prosecutors whether the information Belosic helped the private investigator obtain led to any invasions of privacy.

Tokmenko said BCI spoke with almost all of the people whose information was obtained. “They were all surprised and a bit alarmed that their information had been accessed and disseminated. Your Honor, I guess we would say there was no direct harm except the emotional rattle of being targeted and not understanding quite why.”

She said OHLEG information can include address, driver’s license, social security number, birth date, license plates and vehicles registered to the person. She said no information harmed the individuals’ credit history or financial information.

The BCI investigator spoke with the individuals several years after their information was leaked, and there was no indication that “anything further had developed from it,” she said.

McCaffrey said Belosic served the sheriff’s office for nearly 30 years, including in corrections, patrol, courthouse security and about a decade representing the sheriff’s office on the Drug Enforcement Administration Task Force.

He called Belosic’s offense an “aberrant act in nearly three decades of service.” He said the licensed private investigator was a retired FBI special agent who worked in Mahoning County.

He and Belosic worked together for many years, and the private investigator indicated that “the subjects of his investigation were involved in illegal activity.” Belosic did not “profit in any way,” and it did not “compromise any law enforcement investigation” or law enforcement personnel, McCaffrey said.

“He dropped his guard,” McCaffrey said of Belosic. “He certainly has paid a price.” He added that, “No action has been taken against the investigator.”

Belosic told the judge he was assigned to the Youngstown DEA in 2013. “He and I engaged in several cooperative efforts regarding major drug trafficking organizations operating in the Mahoning Valley and Northeast Ohio.”

Their work “dismantled criminal organizations that had supply routes outside the border of the United States,” he said. He said the retired agent was hired by a concerned family member to investigate suspected illegal drug use and targeted an individual in Youngstown.

He provided the investigator with information that “helped him fill in the gaps of his investigation.” He said he knows he committed “technical violations of the law.”

Belosic’s charge came from a bill of information, in which the defendant waives his right to have his case heard by a county grand jury.