Staff photo / Ed Runyan Mahoning County Prosecutor Lynn Maro speaks with Richard Tvaroch, executive director of Mahoning County Children Services, right, Thursday before Maro gave a “First 100 Days” presentation at the county courthouse.

YOUNGSTOWN — Mahoning County Prosecutor Lynn Maro wanted her audience Thursday to know things have been done differently over the last 100 days than they were done during the 27 years before that.

The grand jury process, attitudes among assistant prosecutors toward plea agreements and the ability of the public and her employees to access information from the prosecutor’s office are among the ways, she said at a “First 100 Days” presentation she gave at the county courthouse. Her predecessors were Gina DeGenova, who served two years, and Paul Gains, who was prosecutor for 27 years.

“I think I took a different approach on serving clients,” she said of her first 100 days after working 35 years as a private practice attorney specializing in criminal defense. “Everybody in this room I consider a client. And that means any of you can call anytime with questions.”

She said she found it humorous to see “heckling” on Facebook about plea bargains in criminal cases in Mahoning County.

She said “the norm would be to disengage and not” respond.

“I started to reach out, and my first response was ‘Call the office. Schedule an appointment. Come down and see what cases we are plea bargaining and why. Get a better understanding of what we are doing in the prosecutor’s office,'” she said.

The biggest surprise was how little the public understands “what the roles and duties and responsibilities are,” she said. “So I am working very hard to change how we are doing our web page, Facebook, to get that information out there to the public. I mean it from the bottom of my heart, if you have a question … call the office, and I will sit down and meet with anybody.”

The major changes she has made regarding criminal cases started with the grand jury process, where citizens decide whether to indict individuals whose cases are presented to them.

“I found out we were the only county in the state that was not calling witnesses in the grand jury. We were calling law enforcement to summarize what the investigation revealed, but we were not calling eyewitnesses and victims,” she said.

“We have since changed that,” she said.

The change began two weeks after she took office. The citizens on the grand jury panel saw the way the grand jury had been done prior to her arrival the first two weeks.

“And then they got to see the shift, where we were calling witnesses or actual victims or eyewitnesses,” she said.

At the end of their final week as grand jurors, she asked for their feedback, and it was “overwhelmingly positive – that actually seeing witnesses give their account gives them a better perspective when they are assessing the evidence,” she said.

“Everybody finds our law enforcement — rightfully so — credible. So when they say something (the grand jurors) accepted it,” she said. “When a witness gives an account, the grand jury has an opportunity to assess ‘Does that really make sense? Is this really going to hold up in court in front of a jury trial?'”

Secondly, the nature of plea bargains has changed. Now, when an assistant prosecutor wants to reduce a violent felony or a felony of the first or second degree, they must have approval from Maro or her chief of the criminal division, John Juhasz, Maro said. It creates greater consistency among the assistant prosecutors and among the five courtrooms, she said.

When an assistant prosecutor asks to reduce a violent felony, they have to give “legitimate reasons,” she said. Two assistant prosecutors asked to reduce felonious assault cases, Maro said.

Their reason was, “It gets rid of the case. My oath is to administer justice … not just get rid of cases,” she said.

In one case, an elderly man was attacked with a machete, and it was captured on video.

“I would not approve a reduction from felonious assault. That assistant was very unhappy with me. And I will tell you that assistant (prosecutor) is no longer with the office,” she said.

She had her employees stand up in the meeting room and called them “an amazing group of men and women” and said she does not expect or want them to “agree with everything I say and do. I want people who question what I do, who ask for guidance and questions.”

When she had finished her remarks, Mahoning County Commissioner Geno DeFabio, who started his first term as an elected official at about the same time as Maro, thanked her “for the job you’re doing” and “the positive changes you are making,” saying he walks past her car in the morning, “And when I leave, it’s always here.”

Maro noted that she and the chiefs of her civil, criminal and juvenile divisions of the prosecutor’s office are in the office from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

“And there has been a steady stream of (assistant prosecutors) who have come in and asked ‘How do you want this done? How do you want this handled?’ I love that our staff is there and accessible for those kinds of questions because there have been a lot of changes that have been occurring,” she said.