Anyone who was surprised by the raids on two county officials’ offices and homes on Monday by 200 federal agents just hasn’t been paying attention. For months there have been cracks in the typically arrogant facades of those in control of the great local Democratic machine. In April, County Commissioner Jimmy Dimora blew a gasket when confronted with questions from two Plain Dealer reporters about a county employee of mysterious origins and utility. In May, acting County Recorder Thomas Roche ordered two Free Times reporters escorted from the county administration building when they showed up to ask questions and request public documents.
So they’ve been worried, that much has been clear. The stunning part is that what might finally have turned years of on-again, off-again, dots-connecting investigations into the day the county stood still…was sex.

In May, Patrick O’Malley resigned his position as County Recorder after pleading guilty to a single obscenity charge for importing illegal pornography through a computer. Agents within the FBI had discovered a cache of pornography after O’Malley’s second wife, Vicki, turned over computers and a padlocked plastic toolbox to authorities during their bitter divorce in 2004.

At the time of the resignation, O’Malley’s attorney was quick to rule out child porn as the basis for the charge. But independent sources who spent hours examining the images contained on O’Malley’s computer spoke to Scene on the condition of anonymity. They said that O’Malley’s computer — and 30 to 40 hard disks that he stored in the toolbox — contained:

• images of what appear to be naked prepubescent children;
• images of women having sex with dogs and “horses, donkeys, or mules”;
• written stories about sex slavery.

The sources described the images as “horrific” and complained about the emotional toll that reviewing the evidence took on them.

No details of O’Malley’s plea deal with prosecutors will be revealed until his sentencing in August. But given the timing of Monday’s raid on county offices as well as the home of party boss Jimmy Dimora, it seems reasonable to wonder if, in exchange for his freedom, O’Malley handed U.S. Attorneys what they needed to obtain search warrants.

O’Malley was also under investigation by the FBI for his role in a shady billboard deal he negotiated between Eller Media and then-mayor Mike White, but has not been charged in connection with any crime related to that deal.

Indeed, O’Malley has often dodged indictments in cases that less-connected officials would not have survived. According to court documents, in 1998 he refused to tell his first wife where he was keeping their son on a last-minute monthlong stay in Ireland. Though it seemed to be a violation of visitation rights, O’Malley was not charged upon his return.

When he was arrested for domestic violence during the July 4 holiday weekend in 2004, after a fight with his second wife, a vacationing judge returned to let him out of jail a day early. And in January of this year, Cathy Luks, who was planning on running against O’Malley in November, recorded a conversation between her and O’Malley in which he seemed to attempt to bribe her to drop out of the race, in exchange for a job in his office. That’s a third-degree felony, but county Prosecutor Bill Mason — O’Malley’s college roommate — apparently is not seeking an indictment.
— James Renner

Mason was conspicuous by his absence from Monday’s legal earthquake.

According to FBI spokesman Scott Wilson, the FBI and IRS have held the investigation close to their chests. “No outside agencies have been involved,” he says. Turns out that Mason wasn’t even given advance notice about the impending search warrants. “Everything related to yesterday’s operation was kept internal to the FBI and IRS,” Wilson says.

“It’s a pretty aggressive move to go into government offices with search warrants,” says Geoffrey Mearns, a former federal prosecutor who investigated organized crime and public corruption in New York.

Aggressive — and unusual. Federal prosecutors have other, less flashy ways to gather evidence. They can ask for interviews from suspected parties, or they can serve grand jury subpoenas. The advantage of the second approach is avoiding the many hours of manpower required to go through the hundreds, perhaps thousands of files and e-mails scooped up in a surprise search.
Federal agents turn to such searches, Mearns says, “if they are concerned that evidence will be destroyed.”

Bill Mason’s office represents county government officials. In this capacity, Mason’s staffers help negotiate contracts and provide legal counsel. At the same time, Mason is also the county’s chief law-enforcement officer, one who often works with state and federal authorities on other investigations. Most recently, Mason partnered with federal agencies on a mortgage-fraud task force.

“Given that dual role,” Mearns asks, “why didn’t federal prosecutors go to Bill Mason and ask him to help produce documents” from Dimora and Russo’s offices?

The raids appear to point toward allegations of steering public contracts in exchange for thousands of dollars’ worth of home improvements. As the county’s lawyer, Mason is in charge of overseeing contracts and making sure that the bidding process and final decisions comply with state and local laws.

So if the allegations in this investigation do indeed involve illicit contracts, then sooner or later Mason is going to have to explain how it happened on his watch.
— Charu Gupta

O’Malley’s recently revealed alleged proclivities may be what finally brought the operation down, but if the federal probe indeed focuses on contracts, then those have been traded around for years.

First, consider where the search warrants were served: Dimora’s house in Independence; County Auditor Frank Russo’s home in Gates Mills; the Parma residence of Russo employee Kevin Kelley; D-A-S Construction in Garfield Heights; Blaze Construction in Berea; Doan Pyramid Electric of Bedford Heights. Vincore LLC, a consulting company run by Russo’s son Vince and based at Burke Lakefront, was also visited.

Now, witness the bonds that tie, according to recent campaign finance reports: Dimora, also chairman of the county Democratic Party, has been the recipient of thousands of dollars in contributions from Ferris Kleem, co-owner of Blaze Construction; the Russo family; and John and Steven Pumper, owners of D-A-S Construction. These businesses were the recipients of many more thousands of dollars in plush public contracts.

Where else has money flowed?

The other county commissioners were guarded on Monday, offering kind words to colleagues in calamity.

“Jimmy Dimora is my friend and colleague,” said Peter Lawson Jones through a statement provided by his secretary. “And I fervently hope and pray that when all is said and done, this is a mere tempest in a teapot.”

Not likely. The mainstream media were in a virtual frenzy, grasping for anything of substance. A man sitting in a 19 Action News car outside Dimora’s home got out and walked quickly over to some garbage cans, lifting the lid on one. Discovering it was empty, the man walked, despondent, back to the company car. Yep. Just garbage. All of it. — Dan Harkins, James Renner, Charu Gupta and Vince Grzegorek

THE BEATINGS WILL CONTINUE UNTIL MORALS IMPROVE
The same week that the new Batman movie set box-office records, Cleveland may have joined Gotham City as proud host of a vigilante group. Reportedly, flyers have surfaced all over the city, announcing the formation of the Neighborhood Defense League, a group of self-appointed protectors of Cleveland streets.

“As a result of years of robberies, stabbings, beatings and drug activity in our neighborhood, we are formed,” read the declaration, also posted at the League’s blog, neighborhooddefenseleague.wordpress.com. “We have taken over a year to recruit and train various citizens of race, age and social status [sic]. All of us do not live in this neighborhood, but for one reason or another with to grant their services for the safety of this neighborhood [sic]. 33% of us now have our Conceal Carry Permits. Our mission is to seek out those who terrorize the neighborhood. We will use our own members as bait and then issue our own sort of justice to those who have earned it.”

League literature, curiously, does not identify exactly which neighborhood the group intends to defend. WTAM talk host Bob Frantz, who has cozied up to the supposed group, reported seeing flyers on the West End. But as with any shadow organization (or elaborate fraud) worth its salt, the League operates in a shroud of mystery. The blog’s webmaster is identified only as “Snuffer.” If The Dark Knight and Iron Man have you ready to join the war on Cleveland crime, you can’t meet him (her?). But maybe he’ll introduce himself if he thinks you have the right stuff.

According to the manifesto, once you’ve honed your martial prowess at the local shooting range or dojo, you can join the League by milling around the unidentified neighborhood, looking formidable and reputable. (The shadow organization doesn’t have a MySpace or Facebook page yet, so you can’t be Friends.) Explained the flyer, “Unfortunately, do [sic] to the privacy of our membership, enrollments not open to all. You can only join if you are approached on the street or in a shop, bar, restaurant, bus, etc., by a current member.” — D.X. Ferris

THAT’S HOW THEY GETCHA
Cleveland-based Dominion East Ohio, a natural-gas provider for more than one million Northeast Ohioans, wants to start charging higher flat fees for gas delivery, while reducing the cost of gas itself. New proposals, made by the Ohio Public Utilities Commission (PUCO) staff after months of reviewing Dominion’s application, would increase monthly delivery charges from $5.70 to $17.50 a month for all Northeast Ohio customers. At the same time, the charge for volume-based gas usage should drop from $1.25 per thousand cubic feet (mcf) of natural gas to 36 cents.

The Ohio Consumers’ Council is in an uproar over the impact these changes would have on low-income users and anyone trying to conserve. At the moment, 10 mcfs of natural gas adds up to a bill of $18.06. If the new rates are approved, 10 mcfs would total $22.42 (including additional pipeline infrastructure and meter retrofit costs proposed by Dominion). But large-scale users, like businesses, will save money, because for them the cut in the usage rate will more than outweigh the increase in the delivery charge.

Shana Eisenstein, a spokeswoman for PUCO, says the proposed rates will “enable [Dominion] to recover what it needs to recover. If a customer reduces his or her usage through conservation, then they will see cost savings on the bill.” But she did not deny that net monthly payments will be higher for smaller customers.

PUCO’s board of commissioners will rule on the proposal. A public hearing for Cleveland-area customers will be held on Monday, August 4, at 12:30 p.m. in the second-floor auditorium of the Frank J. Lausche State Office Building, 615 W. Superior Ave. The OCC’s “How to Testify at Local Public Hearings” is available at pickocc.org/publications/general_occ_information/How_to_Testify.pdf — Charu Gupta

GREASE IS THE WORD
When a stark decline in revenue lies down with a dramatic rise in expenses, what you get is Mayor Frank Jackson announcing Thursday that yet another hole was needed to tighten up the belt to fit today’s times. After an estimated $42 million was added to the bottom line in 2006 and 2007 following Jackson’s 3 percent blubber trim, he must figure there’s no better way to get lean for the cold winter projected ahead.

Last Thursday, he told his managers about a monthly monitored plan, to start immediately, to avoid layoffs in 2009. He’s demanding a hiring freeze and 10 percent cut in overtime spending; elimination of unnecessary purchases and all travel not associated with licensure; and, perhaps most challenging, a 10 percent reduction in energy consumption.

Even though projected fuel costs are about $10 million this year, that’s $1 million he’s hoping to save without a reduction in service. Good luck to him. Within the city’s roughly 4,000-strong fleet of vehicles, Jackson said a whopping 60 of them had been replaced with green alternatives, but typical biodiesel sells for just about the same as — if not more than — regular fuel.
Seems the quickest way to start nicking at fuel costs would be to work faster at replacing the fleet with diesel vehicles that can easily be converted to run on waste vegetable oil, in ready supply at school cafeterias across the city.

Sam Merrett, an Oberlin College grad who founded Full Circle Fuels in 2005, says that for about $5,000 per vehicle, the city could convert diesel engines into vegetable-oil burners. And, he adds, that initial investment would quickly pay for itself.

“In terms of any green energy, I’ve never seen anything with as impressive a payback,” Merrett says of the conversions. “It might take 30 years in solar to make your money back. We can do paybacks in months.”

And since many city vehicles, particularly police cruisers, are obtained through lease-to-own contracts anyway, Merrett says the city could easily start obtaining vehicles already equipped to handle Tater Tot grease. So it’s really just a matter of putting the right request on the market and spending a little scratch up front to put Cleveland on the map as a city truly committed to the globe.

“It’s happening,” Merrett says, “but it’s happening slowly. I’ll tell you, tax credits are what would speed things up dramatically.” — Dan Harkins

MEXICAN STANDOFF
Last week, federal immigration agents hauled off 58 Mexican restaurant workers — dishwashers, cooks and waitresses — from six Casa Fiesta locations in Ohio.

All 58 were charged with immigration violations. The investigation continues, says U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesman Greg Palmore. So there’s no telling whether criminal charges, based on Social Security fraud or identity theft, might follow.

Detainees are being held at area jails and will only be located and identified if and when family members call in with details. Otherwise, the list of 58 taken into custody is off limits, says Palmore, citing ICE’s privacy policies.

While that may be the official policy, local immigration attorney David Leopold says it hardly works to the advantage of detainees. Without public sunshine laws on immigrant arrests, it makes it that much harder for family members to find loved ones — if relatives are even in the area. For immigration advocates and agencies, finding out the names of those arrested might be next to impossible.

The crackdown at Casa Fiesta is just the latest in a string of workplace raids nationwide. In May, ICE agents reeled in 389 employees at an Iowa meatpacking plant, the largest work-site immigration raid in U.S. history. Of those arrested, 306 were fast-tracked through the criminal justice system, offered a plea bargain and sentenced to five months in prison and deportation.
Such actions come on the heels of last year’s failed immigration overhaul in Congress, a plan backed by many Democrats and President George W. Bush but opposed by most Republicans. After that, U.S. Department of Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff decided the next best option was to enforce existing laws. Workplace raids and border crackdowns have become the norm.

But it’s hardly a meaningful substitute for immigration reform, says Leopold. “We’d like to see a more careful use of discretion in ICE’s detention policies,” he says. It would be a better use of federal dollars to target more real threats to national security.

Leopold said the same to the U.S. House Judiciary Committee’s subcommittee on immigration the day after the Casa Fiesta arrests, at a long-planned hearing on the impact of the Iowa raids. Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers (D-Michigan) went on to note that other ethnic groups would never tolerate such raids.

“What about in African American neighborhoods? Or on Indian reservations?” Conyers asked. “Would anyone be shocked if such indiscriminate sweeps resulted in an immediate and loud response?” — Charu Gupta