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First day

New county prosecutor begins service with no major changes on her staff

Richard Scarsella was at his desk in the county recorder’s office Monday, his first day as county recorder. Behind the desk is a wall of metal document holders. He is one of three newly elected county officials whose term of office officially began Monday.

YOUNGSTOWN — If anyone thought that Day 1 of Lynn Maro’s term as Mahoning County prosecutor would result in new lawyers filling the courtrooms of the Mahoning County Courthouse, they would be wrong.

The same assistant prosecutors were in place Monday as several cases went forward with guilty pleas Monday in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court.

The only thing different was that Maro and the chief assistant of her criminal division, John Juhasz, stopped by several of the courts — including two that were set for trial — to discuss the cases with their attorneys.

The Mahoning County commissioners last month recognized three longtime employees of the prosecutor’s office who were leaving for other jobs or retiring — former Chief Assistant Prosecutor Linette Stratford and former assistant prosecutors Nick Modarelli and Tim Tusek.

And Jennifer Bonish, who worked on a number of high-profile criminal cases and had the title of chief of the special victims unit, was sworn in last week as an assistant prosecutor in Columbiana County.

Marilyn Lane, a victim witness advocate; Mary Rousher, lead criminal secretary; and George Briach of the civil division informed Maro that they would not be returning after the new year, Maro said. At least some of those were planning to retire, Maro said.

One part-time assistant prosecutor was not retained, but otherwise, people in key assistant prosecutor roles are the same.

As for being prosecutor after years as a defense attorney, Maro said she took steps as much as a year ago to avoid having conflicts of interest if she won as county prosecutor.

She took herself off of the list of attorneys accepting court appointments as a defense attorney about a year ago and stopped taking significant cases from clients paying for their own lawyer about six months ago, she said.

She said she would have rebuilt her private practice if she did not win the election.

“I was in private practice for 28 years. John (Juhasz) and I were both turning away a lot of (clients), even after the election. People were still calling both of us,” she said.

The Ohio Supreme Court gives an attorney six months to wrap up cases they worked on as a defense attorney if they go to work in the prosecutor’s office, but Maro said she does not think any cases will come up this year that would create a conflict, including appeals court cases.

A couple of her cases produced alleged probation violations, but those have been assigned to someone else, she said.

She said the transition in the prosecutor’s office has gone well so far, sending letters to existing employees and getting responses coming back and having meetings with them. “We’ve been trying to plan as much as we could for today,” she said. “It’s been pretty smooth.”

Maro said some people will be shifting positions in the prosecutor’s office, and she will provide a news release in the coming weeks to provide information on those. She said there have been some changes in the county courts and at the county courthouse.

Two other newly elected officials also had official start dates Monday — new county clerk of courts Michael Ciccone and new county recorder Richard Scarsella. New county Commissioner Geno DeFabio’s first day in office was Friday. The start dates are set by Ohio law.

Scarsella, who was at his desk at the recorder’s office Monday, said he is a full-time county recorder, starting his day at 7:30 a.m., before the courthouse opens to the public at 8 a.m.

“You’ll always find me here at 7:30,” he said, noting that he can do some of his work from home, and he is “always on call.”

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