YOUNGSTOWN – All Mahoning County Common Pleas Court judges recused themselves from hearing Youngstown’s $834,608 lawsuit against former city Finance Director David Bozanich, property developer Dominic Marchionda and two of the latter’s companies.

In a Thursday judgment entry, signed by John M. Durkin, the court’s administrative judge, the five judges recused themselves and requested the Ohio Supreme Court assign a visiting judge to preside over the case.

The lawsuit, filed Nov. 21 by the city, accuses Bozanich, Marchionda and the two companies of participating in a “calculated scheme” to defraud Youngstown related to a public corruption case.

Gregg Rossi – who represents Marchionda and the two companies, U.S. Campus Suites LLC and Erie Terminal Place LLC – filed a motion Jan. 2 to dismiss the lawsuit as well as a counterclaim against the city while raising the possibility of the return of $1 million paid by his clients to Youngstown.

Bozanich hasn’t responded to the lawsuit as of Thursday.

Judge Anthony D’Apolito, the son of city Deputy Law Director Lou D’Apolito, recused himself from the case Nov. 26.

Marchionda, Bozanich and U.S. Campus Suites LLC all pleaded guilty to felonies after taking plea deals Aug. 7, 2020. Judge Maureen Sweeney presided over those criminal cases and was among the five judges to recuse herself from the civil suit.

Bozanich pleaded guilty to one count each of bribery and tampering with records, both felonies, and two misdemeanor counts of unlawful compensation of a public official. Bozanich spent nearly a year in a state prison for his crimes.

Marchionda pleaded guilty to four felony counts of tampering with records, all occurring Oct. 6, 2011, admitting he used false invoices to get money from the city for his Erie Terminal Place downtown housing project to pay bills he owed for his Flats at Wick student-housing complex.

U.S. Campus Suites LLC pleaded guilty to a felony count of receiving stolen property for illegally obtaining money from the city.

Criminal charges against Erie Terminal Place LLC were dismissed.

The city received a $100,000 payment Oct. 17 from the Hartford Fire Insurance Co., Bozanich’s bonding company when he was finance director, as partial payment of the $614,608 it is seeking specifically related to funding given at Bozanich’s behest to Marchionda for U.S. Campus Suites to develop the Flats at Wick.

The $100,000 from Hartford would be deducted from the amount the city is seeking.

Bozanich’s tampering with records conviction was for him giving $1.2 million from the city’s water and wastewater funds, divided evenly, to Marchionda if he gave back $1 million to the city’s general fund in December 2009 to buy the property for a Madison Avenue fire station, which was subsequently closed. That illegal transaction allowed Bozanich to balance the city’s general fund that year.

The lawsuit states the fire station purchase “was a calculated scheme, facilitated by U.S. Campus Suites and orchestrated by Dominic Marchionda and David Bozanich to illegally transfer money from the city’s water fund and wastewater fund to the city’s general fund in violation of” state law.

Marchionda, who wasn’t convicted in the scheme, got to keep the extra $200,000 from the city grant.

The city also paid $3,220 in closing costs.

The appraised value of the fire station at the time was $411,388, according to the lawsuit.

The lawsuit seeks a total of $614,608 from the two men and two companies: $411,388 for the fire station purchase, $3,220 for the closing costs, $100,000 from the wastewater grant and $100,000 from the water grant.

The Flats at Wick were sold in September 2022 at a sheriff’s auction for $5.1 million to U.S. Bank National Association, which sued a company owned by Marchionda and his wife, Jacqueline, after it defaulted on a $5.5 million loan. The property was then sold to a Monroe, New York, company in January 2023 for $4,410,000.

The city is also seeking $220,000 from Marchionda and Erie Terminal Place LLC – $110,000 each for water and wastewater grants given to that project that Marchionda pleaded guilty to creating false invoices.

Erie Terminal Place initially received a $350,000 water grant for waterline improvements and then a supplemental $220,000 grant – half each from water and wastewater – with Marchionda admitting he falsified invoices.

Bozanich, Marchionda and 10 of Marchionda’s companies – as well as former Youngstown Mayor Charles Sammarone – were indicted Aug. 30, 2018, on 101 criminal counts that accused them of engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity and dozens of other felonies. As part of the plea bargain, most of the charges were dismissed.

A 2021 “public interest report” by the state auditor’s office of the city’s finances between 2009 and 2015 listed the $834,608 in findings for recovery against Bozanich, Marchionda and the two companies.

As Youngstown’s finance director from Nov. 15, 1993, to Dec. 31, 2017, Bozanich “had the power to recommend the issuance of city grant funds from the city’s water fund and wastewater fund for city economic development projects,” according to Youngstown’s lawsuit.

In addition to the $834,608, the city is seeking costs and interest on the money, the lawsuit seeks to require Bozanich to “forfeit and disgorge any and all compensation he received from the city during the relevant time period pursuant to the faithless servant doctrine in an amount to be determined at trial.”

Rossi’s Jan. 2 motion asked the lawsuit to be dismissed because it’s untimely and barred by a previous plea agreement.

Rossi wrote the city first became aware of one issue it raised in the lawsuit in a state audit issued Dec. 20, 2012, and the other in an audit filed a year later – and chose to do nothing about either.

The city “failed to commence actions within the applicable statute of limitations,” Rossi wrote.

As for the $200,000 from the original $1.2 million grant, Rossi wrote that more than that amount was used for water and wastewater work related to the student-housing project.

The fire station, Rossi wrote, was deemed as surplus property by the city “with no value and no use” so the monetary recovery claim “is unfounded.”

If U.S. Campus Suites LLC is liable for the value of the fire station, Rossi wrote the fair market value is zero with the county auditor valuing it at $46,000 for property tax purposes.

Also, if it’s determined that the lawsuit is not barred by the statute of limitation, Rossi wrote U.S. Campus Suites LLC seeks the $1 million “in grant money improperly received by the city of Youngstown as a result of the transaction.”

Erie Terminal Place LLC filed a lawsuit May 2 in common pleas court against Youngstown and two contractors hired by the city contending work done to the nearby 20 Federal Place building caused $89,000 in damage to the downtown housing building.

Rossi filed a separate motion Jan. 2 seeking to disqualify the city’s legal counsel, who are attorneys with the Roetzel & Andress law firm. Roetzel & Andress acquired the law firm of Brouse McDowell with two partners from the latter firm – Timothy Reardon and Ed Smith – employed in 2022 as Marchionda’s personal attorney and corporate counsel for the two companies.

The attorneys, Rossi wrote, obtained confidential information regarding the finances of Marchionda and the companies.