Northern District of Ohio

A federal grand jury indicted Margaret A. Hovan, 67, of Brooklyn, for theft of government funds, said Carole S. Rendon, Acting U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio.

The indictment alleges that Hovan fraudulently withdrew her deceased mother’s Title II Social Security Survivor’s benefits from May 2011 until December 2014, taking a total of $59,468 to which she was not entitled.

The Social Security Administration Office of Inspector General conducted the investigation. The case is being prosecuted by Special Assistant United States Attorney Lisa J. Sanniti.

If convicted, the court will determine the defendant’s sentence after a review of factors unique to this case, including the defendant’s prior criminal record, if any, the defendant’s role in the offense, and the characteristics of the violation.  In all cases, the sentence will not exceed the statutory maximum.  In most cases, it will be less than the maximum.

An indictment is only a charge and is not evidence of guilt.  A defendant is entitled to a fair trial in which it will be the government's burden to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

A husband and wife from Mentor were charged with tax evasion, said Steven M. Dettelbach, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio, and Guy Ficco, Acting Special Agent in Charge, Criminal Investigation, Cincinnati Field Office.

Edgardo Morales, 55, and Paula Morales, 48, both of Mentor, are charged with attempting to evade taxes. Specifically, a criminal information alleges that from 2010 to 2012, they owned a bar and entertainment business called The 800 Club in Cleveland. They are alleged to have substantially under-reported the business’s revenues to the Internal Revenue Service on the corporate tax returns associated with the business. 

The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew B. Kall following an investigation by IRS-CI.

If convicted, the defendant's sentence will be determined by the court after a review of the federal sentencing guidelines and factors unique to the case, including the defendant’s prior criminal record (if any), the defendant’s role in the offense, and the characteristics of the violation. 

An information is only a charge and is not evidence of guilt.  A defendant is entitled to a fair trial in which it will be the government’s burden to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

A letter carrier for the U.S. Postal Service has been charged with defrauding the Department of Labor, law enforcement officials said.

Douglas A. Joachim, 51, of Wadsworth, concealed and falsified his medical condition and physical abilities to the Labor Department’s worker’s compensation program. He is employed as a letter carrier and, on numerous occasions, was receiving disability payments through the worker’s compensation program. He willingly made false, fictitious and fraudulent statements about his medical condition, which resulted in these benefits being paid, according to the information.

This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Henry F. DeBaggis following an investigation by the U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General.

If convicted, the defendant’s sentence will be determined by the court after reviewing factors unique to this case, including the defendants’ prior criminal records, if any, the defendants’ roles in the offenses and the characteristics of the violations.  In all cases the sentence will not exceed the statutory maximum and in most cases it will be less than the maximum.

A charge is not evidence of guilt. Defendants are entitled to a fair trial in which it will be the government’s burden to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

An 11-count indictment was filed charging Vinson Shawn Belcher, 40, of Toledo, with distribution of heroin and fentanyl, possession with intent to distribute heroin and being a felon in possession of firearms, said Steven M. Dettelbach, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio.

The indictment details multiple sales of heroin and fentanly between February 2015 and January 2016. It also alleges Belcher had two firearms on January 19, 2016, despite previous felony convictions that forbid him from possessing firearms.

If convicted, the defendant’s sentence will be determined by the court after reviewing factors unique to this case, including the defendant’s prior criminal record, if any, the defendant’s role in the offense and the characteristics of the violation.  In all cases the sentence will not exceed the statutory maximum and in most cases it will be less than the maximum.

The investigating agency in this case is the Federal Bureau of Investigation in conjunction with the Toledo Metro Drug Task Force, Toledo, Ohio.  The case is being handled by Assistant United States Attorneys Alissa M. Sterling and James L. Morford.

An indictment is only a charge and is not evidence of guilt. The defendant is entitled to a fair trial in which it will be the government’s burden to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

A 29-count federal indictment was filed charging four people and a Toledo company with defrauding federal, state and county government by artificially inflating costs and invoices associated with operating job training programs, and instead using the money to pay for real estate, cars, vacations, cosmetic surgery and other personal purchases, said U.S. Attorney Steven M. Dettelbach and Guy A. Ficco, Acting Special Agent in Charge, IRS-Criminal Investigation.

Indicted are: Daniel E. Morris, 66, of Maumee; James D. Moody, 55, Victoria Hawkins, 28, and Angela Bowser, 44, all of of Toledo, and Business Rehabilitation Informed Decisions Guiding Employment Strategies, Inc. d/b/a B.R.I.D.G.E.S., Inc., a Toledo-based corporation. 

The charges relate to program fraud, mail fraud, aggravated identity theft, money laundering, failure to pay over payroll taxes, and obstruction of justice from 2004 through 2015. 

“These defendants took advantage of economic hardship in Northwest Ohio to enrich themselves,” Dettelbach said. “They stole taxpayer dollars and blew the money on vacations, tattoos and other frivolous expenses. We have zero tolerance for misuse of taxpayer money.”

“These government-funded programs were designed to help the men, women and children of Lucas County, and these individuals defrauded them for their own personal gain,” Ficco said.  “The conduct detailed in this indictment is egregious and exposed these individuals for what they really are, thieves.”

According to the indictment:

BRIDGES operated at 242 Reynolds Road and 310 Reynolds Road. The company was in the business of providing work placement and work training services to public assistance recipients, and nearly all of its revenue came from public funds.

Morris was the founder and general manager of BRIDGES. Moody was the registered agents and shareholder along with Morris. Hawkins was an employee from 2008 through 2013, while Bowser was an employee from 2008 through 2014.

The Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program was a welfare program that provided cash assistance to qualifying households with minor children or pregnant women. TANF provided federal block grants to states each year to cover benefits, administrative expenses and services targeted to needy families.

One of TANF’s goals was reducing the dependency of needy parents by promoting job preparation, work and marriage. TANF recipients must work as soon as they are job ready and no later than two years after commencing assistance.

BRIDGES received more than $15.7 million in funding from several entities between 2004 and 2015, including the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services, the Lucas County Department of Job and Family Services, Ohio Works First and others. This funding was based in part on BRIDGES’ grant proposals. The majority of BRIDGES’ stated administrative costs were payroll and transportation.

BRIDGES provided job training and work placement services but at substantially lower costs than those stated in its budgets and invoices. The defendants fraudulently inflated BRIDGES payroll costs, transportation and mileage.

Morris, BRIDGES and others maintained false personnel files, timesheets, mileage records and reimbursement forms for nonexistent employees. They included fake, former or nonexistent employees on the payroll. For example, BRIDGES paid Moody a salary even though he did not work there, and later continued to pay him by issuing payroll checks to Moody’s wife.

BRIDGES, Morris, Moody, Hawkins and Bowser used TANF funds to pay for personal living expenses including groceries, dental care, medical care, resort vacations, pharmaceuticals, clothing, toys, designer bags, furniture, video streaming services, credit card bills, legal fees unrelated to BRIDGES’ business, tattoos, cosmetic surgery, real estate, vehicles, investments and jewelry, according to the indictment.

For example, between February 2013 and October 2014, Hawkins used a debit card linked to a BRIDGES account to make approximately $18,200 in cash withdrawals.

Each defendant is charged in a conspiracy to commit program fraud and mail fraud.  Each defendant is also charged in a conspiracy to commit money laundering offenses.

Morris is charged with four counts of program fraud, five counts of mail fraud, two counts of aggravated identity theft, nine counts of money laundering, six counts of failure to pay over withheld income tax and one count of obstruction of justice.

Moody is charged with four counts of program fraud, five counts of mail fraud, two counts of aggravated identity theft, nine counts of money laundering, six counts of failure to pay over withheld income tax and one count of obstruction of justice

Moody is charged with one count of program fraud and three counts of money laundering.

Hawkins is charged with two counts of program fraud and four counts of money laundering.

Bowser is charged with one count of program fraud and two counts of money laundering.

If convicted, the defendants’ sentences will be determined by the Court after reviewing factors unique to this case, including the defendants’ prior criminal records, if any, the defendants’ roles in the offenses and the characteristics of the violations.  In all cases the sentence will not exceed the statutory maximum and in most cases it will be less than the maximum.

The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Noah P. Hood and Gene Crawford following an investigation by the Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigations, Toledo, Ohio, and the Office of Auditor of State (Ohio), Toledo, Ohio.  .

An indictment is only a charge and is not evidence of guilt.  Defendants are entitled to a fair trial in which it will be the government’s burden to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

Michaele N. Lenzy, 28, of Cleveland, was charged with stealing firearms from a federal firearms licensee, said Steven M. Dettelbach, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio.

The Indictment charges that on or about December 13, 2015, Lenzy knowingly stole and unlawfully took away two semi-automatic firearms from LTD Gun Shop and Pistol Range, which is engaged in the business of dealing in firearms.

If convicted, the defendant’s sentence will be determined by the court after review of factors unique to this case, including the defendant’s prior criminal record, if any, the defendant’s role in the offense, and the characteristics of the violation.  In all cases, the sentence will not exceed the statutory maximum and in most cases it will be less than the maximum.

This case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Benedict S. Gullo.  The case was investigated by the Broadview Heights Police Department and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives.

An indictment is only a charge and is not evidence of guilt.  A defendant is entitled to a fair trial in which it will be the government’s burden to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

A federal grand jury returned a two-count indictment charging Paul E. Loines, 53, of Cleveland, with being a felon in possession of a firearm and possession of crack cocaine with the intent to distribute, said Steven M. Dettelbach, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio. 

The indictment alleges that Loines was found to be in possession of a .22 caliber handgun and 4.94 grams of crack cocaine with intent to distribute.

Assistant United States Attorney Karrie D. Howard is prosecuting the case, following an investigation by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

If convicted, the court will determine the defendant’s sentence after a review of factors unique to this case, including the defendant’s prior criminal record, if any, the defendant’s role in the offense, and the characteristics of the violation.  In all cases, the sentence will not exceed the statutory maximum.  In most cases, it will be less than the maximum.

An indictment is only a charge and is not evidence of guilt.  A defendant is entitled to a fair trial in which it will be the government's burden to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

 

 

A Cleveland man faces drug and firearms charges, said Steven M. Dettelbach, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio.

A six-count indictment was filed charging Jakub Wojtan, 23, on one count of possession with intent to distribute MDMA and five firearm counts.

Wojtan on Dec. 17 possessed a STEN 9 mm submachine gun with no serial number, which had not been registered with the National Firearms Registration and Transfer Record, as required under law; a sawed-off shotgun; a silencer which had not been registered with the National Firearms Registration and Transfer Record, as required under law; and an AK-47 which had not been registered with the National Firearms Registration and Transfer Record, as required under law, according to the indictment.

Assistant United States Attorney Karrie D. Howard is prosecuting the case, following an investigation by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the Parma Heights Police Department.

If convicted, the court will determine the defendant’s sentence after a review of factors unique to this case, including the defendant’s prior criminal record, if any, the defendant’s role in the offense, and the characteristics of the violation.  In all cases, the sentence will not exceed the statutory maximum.  In most cases, it will be less than the maximum.

An indictment is only a charge and is not evidence of guilt.  A defendant is entitled to a fair trial in which it will be the government's burden to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

A two-count criminal information was filed charging a Broadview Heights man for his role in the theft of more than $3.3 million from the Cuyahoga Heights School District, law enforcement officials said.

Dominick Palazzo, 42, was charged with conspiracy to commit mail fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering.

His brother, Joseph M. Palazzo, was an employee of the Cuyahoga Heights School District. The Palazzos, along with David Donadeo and Dennis Boyles, conspired together to defraud the school district through dozens of fraudulent billings to sham companies controlled by Dominick Palazzo, Donadeo and Boyles, according to court documents.

“This defendant, along with his brother and friends, stole millions of dollars from the children and taxpayers in Cuyahoga Falls,” said Steven M. Dettelbach, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio. “They used fraudulent invoices and fake companies to enrich themselves at the expense of kids.”

“This investigation uncovered a multi-million-dollar embezzlement scheme laced with a web of financial lies that left a local school district in financial peril,” said Guy A. Ficco, Acting Special Agent in Charge, IRS-Criminal Investigation, Cincinnati Field Office.

“Dominick Palazzo violated the trust that the citizens and students of Cuyahoga Heights had placed in him by funding his personal account with their tax dollars,” said Stephen D. Anthony, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Cleveland Office. “The investigators are to be commended for uncovering this enormous fraud.”

Joseph Palazzo was employed by the Cuyahoga Heights School District as its Information Technology director until February 2011. He was responsible for managing the district’s IT Department, which included purchasing hardware and software and making other IT expenditures to benefit the district and its students, according to the information.

Joseph Palazzo devised a scheme to divert millions of dollars of district funds to his personal use and the personal use of others. This scheme involved Joseph Palazzo submitting to the district for payment false invoices that purported to be for IT-related goods and services purchased from legitimate companies by the district’s IT Department to benefit the district. He represented that the invoices he submitted were legitimate, and he approved the false invoices himself or forged the signature of another in the approval section, according to the information.

However, these invoices were for services never performed, fictitious software and hardware, and software and hardware never received or already purchased by the district from another source. The companies named on the invoices did not supply such goods to or perform such services for the district and were nothing more than “shells,” according to court documents.

Joseph Palazzo’s actions caused the district to issue checks to these shell vendor corporations, which were established and owned by Dominick Palazzo, Boyles and Donadeo. The shell vendor corporation owners kept approximately half of the stolen money themselves and funneled the remainder of the money back to Joseph Palazzo for his personal use, according to court documents.

These shell companies included Laptops and More, Inc., and Impact Global, LLC, which were established by Dominick Palazzo.

The district sustained a total loss of at least $3,333,448, as a result of the fraudulent scheme according to the information.

Joseph Palazzo was previously found guilty and is currently serving a sentence of more than 11 years in prison. Boyles was sentenced to more than two years in prison and Donadeo’s case is pending.

The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Rebecca Lutzko following an investigation by the Internal Revenue Service -- Criminal Investigation and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

If convicted, the defendant’s sentence will be determined by the court after review of factors unique to this case, including the defendant’s prior criminal record, if any, the defendant’s role in the offense, and the characteristics of the violation.

An information is only a charge and is not evidence of guilt. A defendant is entitled to a fair trial in which it will be the government’s burden to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

The ProMedica Toledo Hospital will revise its policies and procedures that ensure that patients or  companions who are deaf or hard of hearing  receive auxiliary aids and services to obtain effective communication during treatment, as well as train its staff on effective communication as required by Americans with Disabilities Act, said U.S. Attorney Steven M. Dettelbach.

ProMedica entered into the settlement to resolve an investigation pursuant to Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act, conducted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Ohio. This hospital will also pay $10,000 to the complainant and $5,000 to the United States in a civil penalty.  

“This settlement will ensure greater access to health care for those who are deaf or hard of hearing,” Dettelbach said. “Whether it is at arenas or apartment buildings or at health-care facilities, we will continue to enforce the Americans with Disabilities Act, which has improved the lives of countless Americans.”

The investigation began with a complaint made to the U.S. Attorney’s Office alleging that ProMedica Toledo Hospital violated the ADA by failing to provide appropriate auxiliary aids and services, including sign language interpreter services, to a patient who is deaf during critical interactions relating to the complainant’s medical care. 

The complaint also included an allegation of retaliation when ProMedica’s Center for Women’s Health allegedly refused services to the complainant’s minor daughter during the course of the United States’ investigation.

Ensuring that medical care providers do not discriminate on the basis of disability is an issue of general public importance.  The U.S. Attorney’s Office is authorized to investigate allegations of violations of the ADA and takes complaints from the public.  The U.S. Attorney’s Office has the authority to, where appropriate, negotiate and secure voluntary compliance agreements, and to bring civil actions enforcing title III of the ADA should it fail to secure voluntary compliance. 

A medical care facility that is a private, non-profit corporation, licensed by the State of Ohio is a “public accommodation” within the meaning of title III of the ADA.  Under title III of the ADA, no person who owns, leases (or leases to), or operates a place of public accommodation may discriminate against an individual on the basis of disability in the full and equal enjoyment of the goods, services, facilities, privileges, advantages, or accommodations of a place of public accommodation. 

WASHINGTON – Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch released the following statement on the departure of U.S. Attorney Steven Dettelbach of the Northern District of Ohio:

“As the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio, Steven Dettelbach has been a consummate public servant, an exemplary leader and an outstanding law enforcement officer.  During his time in office, Steven successfully negotiated a transformative reform agreement with the Cleveland Division of Police with emphasis on better use-of-force policies, more training, increased accountability and more robust community engagement.  He assembled an innovative coalition of law enforcement and medical professionals to address his district’s opioid epidemic – an approach that became a national model.  And he served as an invaluable member of the Attorney General’s Advisory Council under both me and my predecessor, Attorney General Eric Holder.  I want to thank Steven for his dedicated service to Ohio and to the nation and I look forward to all that he will continue to achieve in the months and years to come.”

Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch released the following statement on the departure of U.S. Attorney Steven Dettelbach of the Northern District of Ohio:

“As the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio, Steven Dettelbach has been a consummate public servant, an exemplary leader and an outstanding law enforcement officer.  During his time in office, Steven successfully negotiated a transformative reform agreement with the Cleveland Division of Police with emphasis on better use-of-force policies, more training, increased accountability and more robust community engagement.  He assembled an innovative coalition of law enforcement and medical professionals to address his district’s opioid epidemic – an approach that became a national model.  And he served as an invaluable member of the Attorney General’s Advisory Council under both me and my predecessor, Attorney General Eric Holder.  I want to thank Steven for his dedicated service to Ohio and to the nation and I look forward to all that he will continue to achieve in the months and years to come.”

United States Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio Steven M. Dettelbach has announced that he had submitted his resignation to President Obama and Attorney General Lynch effective on Feb. 5, 2016.

Dettelbach, 50, stated that he plans to reenter private practice.

“Serving as the United States Attorney, and leading and working with the incredible men and women of this office and so many law enforcement agencies, has been the single greatest honor of my professional life,” Dettelbach said. “I want to thank President Obama for affording me that rare opportunity. I hope that in the future I can both serve my clients well and remain an active part of this incredible community through public service.”

As U.S. Attorney, Dettelbach continued to focus on corruption, violent crime and fraud while also making civil rights and cybercrime new priorities.  He made efforts in each of those areas to not only ramp up enforcement, but to prevent crime by engaging the community through outreach and creative programming.

Dettelbach emphasized transparency, publicly issuing releases on nearly every case charged. He also took steps to enhance the internal review of cases, requiring for the first time prosecution memoranda and indictment review committees in significant cases. He created a dedicated unit to focus on civil rights violations, both criminal and civil, and dedicated two prosecutors to cyber enforcement and formation of the Northern Ohio Cyber Security Consortium with leading businesses in the area. He created a new position of outreach coordinator to better understand community needs, and successfully managed the office through unprecedented Washington-based budget crises, including a federal government shutdown and sequestration cuts, while continuing to bring significant and impactful cases and collect in each and every year several times the office budget in fines, civil judgments and forfeitures from crime proceeds.

Under his leadership, the office negotiated an agreement to reform the Cleveland Division of Police, with emphasis on better use-of-force policies, more training, increased accountability, supervision and more robust community engagement. It also entered into voting rights agreements that for the first time ever resulted in bilingual ballots in Lorain and Cuyahoga Counties in order to comply with Section 4(e) of the Voting Rights Act.

He also brought together a diverse group of stakeholders – hospitals, doctors, law enforcement, treatment professionals, people in recovery and others – to attempt to find a comprehensive solution to the district’s heroin and opioid epidemic. That approach has become a national model replicated throughout the country including Atlanta, Minneapolis, Maine and New Mexico.

Among the cases prosecuted under Dettelbach:

• Human trafficking convictions against more than 40 defendants including Jeremy Mack, the Elyria man sentenced to life in prison for trafficking drug-addicted women and girls, and Jessica Hunt and Jordie Callahan, sentenced to 32 and 30 years in prison, respectively, for holding a woman with cognitive disabilities and her child against their will and forcing the woman to perform manual labor.

• U.S. v. Antun Lewis, twice convicting the defendant now serving 35 years in federal prison for setting the deadliest house fire in Cleveland history, which killed eight children and one adult.

• More than 1,000 firearms indictments filed against often violent felons during his time in office, one of the leading offices in the nation in that regard.

• U.S. v. Randolph Linn, an Indiana man now serving 20 years in prison for driving to Ohio to set fire to the largest mosque in the Toledo area.

• Five indictments using death-specification enhancements for people who sold heroin that directly contributed to a fatal overdose.

• The indictments and convictions in U.S. v. Samuel Mullet et al. on charges of hate crimes based on five violent religiously based attacks on Amish victims, which were reversed based on a jury instruction error, and witness tampering which resulted in significant prison sentences for all 16 defendants.

• Successfully prosecutions for fraud and bribery, one of which he personally tried, involving the collapse of the St. Paul Croatian Federal Credit Union, the largest credit union failure in United States history.

• U.S. v. Kevin Dye, another case personally tried by Dettelbach resulting in the conviction and 60-year prison sentence of a violent felon for firebombing the Mansfield Courthouse and City Hall.

• U.S. v. Schatz: William B. Schatz, the general counsel of the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District, took bribes totaling approximately $682,130 from Robert J. Kassouf, a contractor on NEORSD’s Mill Creek Tunnel project. Stanley Lojek was an intermediary for the bribes. Schatz also embezzled approximately $166,940 from the NEORSD. Schatz was sentenced to nearly six years in prison, Kassouf was sentenced nearly five years in prison and Lojek was sentenced to one year in prison.

• U.S. v. Alatrash: Faisal Alatrash, a project superintendent for the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority, was sentenced to more than eight years in prison following his trial for taking bribes from contractors and steering work to his wife’s cleaning company. 

• U.S. v. Ugochukwu: Christopher Ugochukwu is serving a 26-year prison sentence for leading an organization that brought heroin from Nigeria, Mexico, and Colombia and sold it throughout Greater Cleveland. Authorities seized more than 20 kilograms of heroin in 2010, believed to be the largest heroin seizure in Ohio history. Twenty-three people were convicted of crimes for their roles in the operation.

• U.S. v. Ricks: Keith Ricks, the leader of a group that brought large shipments of heroin from Atlanta and Chicago and sold it around the East Side of Cleveland, was sentenced to life in prison. A jury found that Ricks led a conspiracy that included scores of people, robbed rival drug dealers and used violence to control the sale of heroin in the neighborhood around St. Clair Avenue and East 117th Street. Nearly 60 people were convicted in the case.

• U.S. v. Wright, et al.: Douglas Wright, Brandon Baxter, Anthony Hayne, Connor Stevens, and Joshua Stafford convicted for the attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction for their efforts to blow up the Route 82 bridge that spans the Cuyahoga Valley National Park. Wright was sentenced to 11 years in prison, Baxter to nearly 10 years, Hayne to six years, Stevens to eight years and Stafford to 10 years in prison.

• U.S. v. Akl, et al: Hor and Amela Akl, a married couple in Toledo, were caught attempting to send $200,000 in cash to Hizbollah in Lebanon that was to be concealed in the side panel of the door of a car that was to be shipped to Lebanon. Hor Akl was sentenced to more than six years in prison and Amera Akl was sentenced to more than three years in prison.

• ISIL cases: Amir Al-Ghazi, of Sheffield Lake, was indicted on charges of providing material support to Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), as well as firearms and narcotics violations. Al-Ghazi is alleged to have pledged his support to ISIL via social media in 2014. From July 2014 to June 2015, Al-Ghazi made multiple statements trying to persuade others to join ISIL. He also expressed his own desire to perpetrate an attack on the U.S. and attempted to purchase an AK-47 assault rifle. Terrance McNeil, of Akron, was indicted for with soliciting the murder of members of the U.S. military. McNeil professed his support on social media on numerous occasions for ISIL and encouraged ISIL sympathizers to behead and stab members of the military in the U.S. Both cases are pending.

• U.S. v. Persaud: Westlake cardiologist Dr. Henry Persaud was sentenced to 20 years in prison for performing unnecessary catheterizations, tests, stent insertions and causing unnecessary coronary artery bypass surgeries as part of a scheme to overbill Medicare and other insurers by $29 million.

• U.S. v. Hazelwood, et al.: Nine people were convicted in one of the largest Internet pill diversion cases in the country and the first in the district. The case involved Hazelwoood and other doctors prescribing and dispensing hundreds of thousands of pills to people who contacted them via web sites Hazelwood controlled.

Dettelbach previously served for 12 years as a career federal prosecutor. During those years, he worked at the Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division, Criminal Section; U.S. Attorneys Offices in Maryland and Washington, D.C.; and from 2003 to 2006 in the Northern District of Ohio, as a member of the Organized Crime and Corruption Strike Force.  As a line federal prosecutor, Dettelbach handled numerous high-profile cases, including public corruption and bribery cases such as U.S. v. Nate Gray and U.S. v. Emmanuel Onunwor, the prosecution of numerous corrupt officials and businesspeople involving the Cleveland Water Department, and U.S. v. Litten, a multimillion dollar bankruptcy fraud in Maryland.  He also won convictions in what was, at the time, the largest human trafficking case ever brought in the United States, in which approximately 70 Thai women were held against their will and forced to work in El Monte, California.

Dettelbach is one of only five U.S. Attorneys to be appointed to the Attorney General’s Advisory Council by both Attorneys General Eric Holder and Loretta Lynch. Dettelbach chaired the subcommittee on Civil Rights during the entire length of his service as United States Attorney, tying him as the longest serving Subcommittee Chair of any United States Attorney in the Administration.

Dettelbach also was detailed to serve as Counsel for the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary from 2001 to 2003. Dettelbach was previously a partner at the law firm of Baker & Hostetler, LLP.

Dettelbach graduated from Dartmouth College in 1988 and from Harvard Law School in 1991. He lives in Solon, Ohio with his wife and two children.

U.S. Attorney Steven M. Dettelbach announced that the Northern District of Ohio collected more than $40.7 million in Fiscal Year 2015 from criminal and civil actions.

Approximately $33.6 million was collected in criminal actions and about $7.1 million in civil actions. 

Additionally, the office took in $12.6 million in civil and criminal forfeitures.

The office’s total overall budget for this fiscal year was about $16 million.

“Once again our office brought in millions of dollars and doubled our annual budget,” Dettelbach said. “In addition to thwarting terrorism, protecting the environment, enforcing civil rights laws, rooting out corruption and getting guns off the streets, this office protects the fiscal interests of the taxpayers and the Treasury.”

“The Department of Justice is committed to upholding the rule of law, safeguarding taxpayer resources and protecting the American people from exploitation and abuse,” said Attorney General Lynch.  “The collections we are announcing demonstrate not only the strength of that commitment, but also the significant return on public investment that our actions deliver.  I want to thank the prosecutors and trial attorneys who made this achievement possible, and to reiterate our dedication to this ongoing work.”

The money is used to compensate crime victims, is distributed to state and local law enforcement partners who participate in investigations and is returned to the general treasury.

Among the largest collections this year:

United States v. Robinson Health System Inc.: The Ravenna-based nonprofit paid $10 million to settle claims that it violated the False Claims Act, the Anti-Kickback Statute and the Stark Statute by engaging in improper financial relationships with referring physicians.

The settlement involved Robinson’s financial relationships with a number of referring physicians that allegedly violated the Anti-Kickback Statute and the Stark Statute, both of which restrict the financial relationships that hospitals may have with doctors who refer patients to them.  These relationships included management agreements that Robinson had with two physicians groups.  These physicians allegedly failed to provide sufficient bona fide management services to have justified the payments that they received.  Robinson disclosed these issues to the government. The company operated a number of health care facilities in Portage County, including Robinson Memorial Hospital. 

United States v. Thomas Shumay: Shumay paid $400,000 in restitution last year. He was previously found guilty of mail fraud and making false statements in relation to his work as president of All Tools. In that capacity, he was responsible for ensuring that landing gear parts produced and sold by All Tools for use on military aircraft were developed and tested in compliance with military contract specifications. 

United States v. Scott A. Fisher: Fischer, of Marion, Ohio, was previously found guilty of tax evasion for evading nearly $900,000 in federal income tax between 2006 and n2010. Fisher paid the unpaid taxes leading up to plea. He was sentenced to one year in prison and fined $250,000. That fine was paid last year.

The Justice Department collected approximately $23.1 billion in civil and criminal actions across the country in the 2015 fiscal year.  

The largest civil collections were from affirmative civil enforcement cases, in which the United States recovered government money lost to fraud or other misconduct or collected fines imposed on individuals and/or corporations for violations of federal financial, health, safety, civil rights and environmental laws.  In addition, civil debts were collected on behalf of several federal agencies, including the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Health and Human Services, Internal Revenue Service, Small Business Administration and Department of Education.

The total includes all monies collected as a result of Justice Department-led enforcement actions and negotiated civil settlements.  It includes more than $16.2 billion in payments made directly to the Justice Department and more than $6.8 billion in indirect payments made to other federal agencies, states and other designated recipients.

The U.S. Attorneys’ Offices, along with the Department’s litigating divisions, are responsible for enforcing and collecting civil and criminal debts owed to the U.S. and criminal debts owed to federal crime victims.  The law requires defendants to pay restitution to victims of certain federal crimes who have suffered a physical injury or financial loss.  While restitution is paid to the victim, criminal fines and felony assessments are paid to the Department’s Crime Victims’ Fund, which distributes the funds to state victim compensation and victim assistance programs. 

The largest civil collections were from affirmative civil enforcement cases, in which the United States recovered government money lost to fraud or other misconduct or collected fines imposed on individuals and/or corporations for violations of federal health, safety, civil rights or environmental laws.  In addition, civil debts were collected on behalf of several federal agencies, including the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Health and Human Services, Internal Revenue Service, Small Business Administration and Department of Education.

A complete breakdown of collections in the Northern District of Ohio over past decade is as follows:

2014: $356.7 million

2013: $23.9 million

2012: $79.7 million

2011: $48.6 million

2010: $42 million

2009: $17.7 million

2008: $36.7 million

2007: $63.5 million

2006: $80 million

2005: $51.4 million

2004: $22.3 million

James J. Paterson, 49, of Lorain, was sentenced to more than eight years in prison for receiving and possessing visual depictions of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct, said Steven M. Dettelbach, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio, and Stephen D. Anthony, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI's Cleveland Office.

Paterson knowingly received, using any means and facility of interstate and foreign commerce, numerous computer files, which files contained visual depictions of real minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct, and which files had been shipped and transported in and affecting interstate and foreign commerce. This took place between September 10, 2010, through on or about November 17, 2014. Paterson possessed two computers that contained child pornography on March 30, 2014, according to court documents.

This case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Michael A. Sullivan.  The case was investigated by the Elyria Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

A federal grand jury returned a 100-count indictment charging five Youngstown men with distributing heroin and crack cocaine, said Steven M. Dettelbach, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio, and Stephen D. Anthony, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Cleveland Office.

The indictment includes a sentencing enhancement charging that one of the defendants, Shayne Mascarella, distributed heroin that directly resulted in the July 19, 2015 death in Youngstown of a person identified in the indictment as L.Z.

Indicted are: William Williams, 33; Derrick Brown, 35; Shayne Mascarella, 22; Tyrell Hollis, 22, and Emmanuel Bunkley, 35.

“This group spread misery throughout the Mahoning Valley in the name of profit,” Dettelbach said. “They destroyed families and one of them is charged with supplying the heroin that killed someone last year. We will continue to do all we can to curtail Ohio’s opioid epidemic, including vigorous criminal prosecutions.”

“These individuals are responsible for bringing large quantities of illegal and deadly drugs to the streets of Youngstown,” Anthony said. “The collaborative effort between law enforcement agencies throughout this two-year investigation has been exceptional and we will continue to work together to make our cities safer.”   

The indictment alleges the five men knowingly conspired to possess with the intent to distribute and to distribute heroin and cocaine base (crack cocaine) between July 2013 and July 23, 2015.

Williams supplied heroin and crack cocaine to Brown, Mascarella, Hollis, Bunkley and others for distribution in the Youngstown area. It was further part of the conspiracy that Brown supplied heroin and crack cocaine to Mascarella for distribution in the Youngstown area, according to the indictment.

On or about July 19, 2015, Mascarella distributed heroin to a person which resulted in a drug overdose and the victim’s death, according to the indictment.

It was further part of the conspiracy that cellular telephones, code words and phrases were used by the co-conspirators to facilitate their drug trafficking activities.

If convicted, the defendants’ sentences will be determined by the court after review of factors unique to this case, including the defendant’s prior criminal record, if any, the defendant’s role in the offense and the characteristics of the violations.  In all cases, the sentence will not exceed the statutory maximum and, in most cases, it will be less than the maximum.

The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Jason M. Katz and David M. Toepfer. The investigation preceding the indictment was conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Mahoning Valley Violent Crimes Task Force, which includes officers from the Boardman Police Department and Mahoning County Sheriff's Office. 

An indictment is only a charge and is not evidence of guilt.  A defendant is entitled to a fair trial in which it will be the government’s burden to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

A federal grand jury returned a one-count indictment charging Keauntee Redfern, 37, of Cleveland, and a former U.S. Mail Postal Carrier, with delaying U.S. Mail, that was entrusted to him for delivery to citizens of Northeast Ohio, said Steven M. Dettelbach, U.S. States Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio. 

The indictment alleges that Redfearn, a Postal Service Employee with the Cleveland Heights Branch Post Office in unlawfully detained and delayed first-class letters and other mail matter entrusted to him for intended delivery.

Assistant United States Attorney Karrie D. Howard is prosecuting the case, following an investigation by the U.S. Postal Service -- Office of Inspector General.

If convicted, the Court will determine the defendant’s sentence after a review of factors unique to this case, including the defendant’s prior criminal record, if any, the defendant’s role in the offense, and the characteristics of the violation.  In all cases, the sentence will not exceed the statutory maximum.  In most cases, it will be less than the maximum.

An indictment is only a charge and is not evidence of guilt.  A defendant is entitled to a fair trial in which it will be the government's burden to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

A federal grand jury indicted three Cleveland men for armed robberies in Solon, Bath and North Olmsted, said Steven M. Dettelbach, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio.

Stephone D. Tillman, 24, Matthew S. Bowen, Jr., 24, and Christopher R. Jones, 25, were indicted on charges of conspiring to interfere with interstate commerce by means of robbery as well as committing the robberies of convenience stores in Solon and in Bath.

Additionally, Tillman and Bowen were also charged with robbing a drive through convenience store in North Olmsted.  Each of the robberies involved the use of a firearm, according to the indictment.

Tillman, Bowen, and Jones robbed the Circle K, located at 29605 Aurora Road, in Solon, on September 15, 2015.  On October 3, 2015, Bowen and Tillman robbed the Zip Thru drive-through store located at 30781 Lorain Road, in North Olmsted.  On October 8, 2015, all three defendants robbed the Circle K, located at 791 Cleveland-Massillon Road, in Bath, according to the indictment.

Additionally, Tillman was charged with using and carrying a firearm during and in relation to each of the robberies. Bowen and Jones were charged as accomplices to that firearm use for the two Circle K robberies.

Tillman was also charged with being a felon in possession of a firearm.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives conducted the investigation in conjunction with the Solon, North Olmsted, and Bath Police Departments.  The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Kevin R. Filiatraut and Kelly L. Galvin.

If convicted, the defendant’s sentence will be determined by the court after review of factors unique to this case, including the defendant’s prior criminal record, if any, the defendant’s role in the offense, and the characteristics of the violation.  In all cases, the sentence will not exceed the statutory maximum and in most cases it will be less than the maximum.

An indictment is only a charge and is not evidence of guilt.  A defendant is entitled to a fair trial, in which it will be the government’s burden to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt

A Cleveland man was indicted for four armed robberies of Family Dollar stores that took place in 2015, said Steven M. Dettelbach, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio, and Stephen D. Anthony, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Cleveland Office.

Patrick Young, 19, was indicted on one count of conspiring to interfere with commerce by means of robbery, four counts of interference with commerce by means of robbery and two counts of brandishing a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence.

The indictment alleges that Young and others known to the grand jury conspired to rob Family Dollar stores at 7300 St. Clair Ave., 3470 East 93rd Street, 7415 Superior Ave., and 12107 St. Clair Ave between August 24 and September 16, 2015.

The indictment also alleges Young carried and brandished a firearm during the incidents. 

If convicted, the defendant’s sentence will be determined by the court after review of factors unique to this case, including the defendant’s prior criminal record, if any, the defendant’s role in the offense, and the characteristics of the violation. In all cases, the sentence will not exceed the statutory maximum and in most cases the sentence will be less than the maximum.

The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Carmen E. Henderson following an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Cleveland Division, and the Cleveland Division of Police, and with the assistance of the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor’s Office.

An indictment is only a charge and is not evidence of guilt. A defendant is entitled to a fair trial in which it will be the government’s burden to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

A federal grand jury returned a three-count indictment charging Cortez K.D. Williams, 24, of Canton, with bank robbery, said Steven M. Dettelbach, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio. 

Williams is charged robbing the Huntington National Bank at 230 West Cedar Street in Ravenna, on March 27, 2015. Williams is charged with robbign the same Huntington National Bank branch on September 23. He is also charged with robbintg the Huntington National Bank at 1045 Trump Road in Carrollton. 

If convicted, the defendant’s sentence will be determined by the court after review of factors unique to this case, including the defendant’s prior criminal records, if any, the defendant’s role in the offense and the characteristics of the violation.  In all cases, the sentence will not exceed the statutory maximum and in most cases it will be less than the maximum.

The investigation preceding the indictment was conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.  The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Linda H. Barr.

An indictment is only a charge and is not evidence of guilt.  A defendant is entitled to a fair trial in which it will be the government’s burden to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

A federal grand jury returned a two-count indictment charging Stuart J. Boykin, 39, of Akron, with possession with the intent to distribute fentanyl and heroin, and being a felon in possession of firearms and ammunition, said Steven M. Dettelbach, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio. 

Count 1 charges Boykin of possession with the intent to distribute fentanyl/heroin on November 19, 2015.  Count 2 charges Boykin with possessing firearms and ammunition on that same date, after having been convicted in Summit County Court of Common Pleas Case No. CR-1995-06-1635A on November 20, 1995, of felonious assault. 

If convicted, the defendant’s sentence will be determined by the court after review of factors unique to this case, including the defendant’s prior criminal records, if any, the defendant’s role in the offense and the characteristics of the violation.  In all cases, the sentence will not exceed the statutory maximum and in most cases it will be less than the maximum.

The investigation preceding the indictment was conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Linda H. Barr.

An indictment is only a charge and is not evidence of guilt. A defendant is entitled to a fair trial in which it will be the government’s burden to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

An Elyria man was sentenced to more than a decade in prison for federal narcotics and firearms violations, said Steven M. Dettelbach, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio.

Jerry L. Wells, Jr., 34, was sentenced to 125 months in prison after previously being found guilty of distribution of heroin, possession with intent to distribute marijuana and MDMA, and being a felon in possession of a firearm.

Wells distributed heroin on four occasions in February. He also possessed 30 grams of MDMA and 60 marijuana plants on Feb. 21, according to court documents.

On that same date, Wells possessed a Taurus 9 mm pistol despite several previous convictions in Lorain County Common Pleas Court, including heroin trafficking, cocaine trafficking and burglary, according to the indictment.

This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert F. Corts following an investigation by the Elyria Police Department, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

Five men were named in an 11-count indictment, accused of conspiring to bring heroin, cocaine and marijuana to the Toledo area from Mexico and California, said Steven M. Dettelbach, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio, and Stephen D. Anthony, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Cleveland Office.

Indicted are: Jesus Reyes, 27, of Los Angeles; Jose Leal Jr., 27, of Los Angeles; Edgar Campos, 26, of San Fernando, Calif.; Rigoberto Luna Luna, 48, of Mexico, and Eric Dodd, 25, of Oregon, Ohio.

Reyes, Leal, Campos and Luna obtained the drugs in California and Mexico and distributed the heroi, cocaine and marijuana to members of the Alejandro Garcia organization, a narcotics operation that operated in Northwest Ohio. This took place beginning in 2010, according to the indictment.

Reyes, Leal, Campos and Luna facilitated the transportation of kilogram-quantities of heroin, cocaine and marijuana to the Toledo area by utilizing semi-truck deliveries, parcel delivery services and couriers, including Dodd, according to the indictment.

Dodd assisted in the distribution of narcotics to mid-level and lower-level drug dealers in the Toledo area, according to the indictment.

This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Freeman following an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Toledo Police Department and the Metro Drug Task Force.

If convicted, the defendant’s sentence will be determined by the court after reviewing factors unique to this case, including the defendant’s prior criminal record, if any, the defendant’s role in the offense and the characteristics of the violation. In all cases the sentence will not exceed the statutory maximum and in most cases it will be less than the maximum.

An indictment is only a charge and not evidence of guilt. Defendants are entitled to a fair trial in which it will be the government’s burden to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

A Cleveland man was sentenced to nearly 10 years in prison for robbing a Family Dollar store in Cleveland Heights, said Steven M. Dettelbach, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio, and Stephen D. Anthony, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI's Cleveland Office.

Keyonte Oates, aka Keyontae Berry, aka “Pacco,” 23, was previously found guilty of one count of interference with commerce by means of robbery and one count of using and carrying a firearm during and In relation to a crime of violence. He was sentenced to 114 months in prison.

Oates and others attempted to rob the Family Dollar store on September 23, 2014. A firearm was brandished during the incident, according to court documents.

The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney M. Kendra Klump following an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Cleveland Division, and the Cleveland Heights Police Department.

 

An information was filed charging Arely Gonzalez-Corea, 37, of Katy, Texas, with transporting illegal aliens with the United States, said Steven M. Dettelbach, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio.

Corea was stopped in Sandusky County last month and found to have three juveniles who were in the United States illegally, two from Guatemala and one from Nicaragua, according to the information.

If convicted, the defendant’s sentence will be determined by the court after reviewing factors unique to this case, including the defendant’s prior criminal record, if any, the defendant’s role in the offense and the characteristics of the violation.  In all cases the sentence will not exceed the statutory maximum and in most cases it will be less than the maximum.

The investigating agency in this case is the Bureau of Customs & Border Protection, Sandusky, Ohio. The case is being handled by Assistant United States Attorney Tracey B. Tangeman.

An information is only a charge and is not evidence of guilt. Defendants are entitled to a fair trial in which it will be the government’s burden to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

Two Cleveland women were sentenced to prison for a conspiracy in which they stole other people’s identities and collected more than $326,000 in false tax returns, law enforcement officials said.

Michelle D. Pugh, a/k/a Michelle Morman, 39, was sentenced to four years in prison. Joi C. Tate, 38, was sentenced to two years and eight months in prison. They were ordered to pay $326,265 in restitution.

They were previously found guilty of conspiracy to defraud the government, making false, fictitious and fraudulent claims for income tax refunds, theft of public funds and aggravated identity theft.

“This duo is stole money from the government and identifying information from customers,” said Steven M. Dettelbach, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio.

“These unscrupulous defendants thought they had figured out a clever scheme to thwart the IRS and steal from American taxpayers by posing as legitimate income tax preparers,” said Guy A. Ficco, Acting Special Agent in Charge, IRS Criminal Investigation, Cincinnati Field Office.  “Today they are being held accountable for their criminal actions.”

Pugh and Tate, acting together and with others, engaged in a false tax refund scheme in which they prepared at least 25 false income tax returns for the years 2010 and 2011, for approximately 20 people including Pugh, which claimed income tax refunds that were greater than the actual refunds, if any, to which the taxpayers were entitled, according to court documents.  

Pugh, Tate and others gathered personal identification information used in filing the returns either by posing as legitimate tax preparers working through Pugh’s company, MP Tax Services, or through a network of associates.  In some cases, Pugh and Tate obtained and used personal identification information of individuals without their knowledge of consent.  Pugh and Tate did not list themselves as the actual tax preparer on any of the tax returns they filed in others’ names.

On each return, Pugh, Tate and their cohorts generated false refund claims, at least in part, by reporting a falsely inflated or fictitious wage income and a resulting false earned income credit.  On some returns, Pugh, Tate and their confederates also claimed false dependents and/or reported false education and child tax credits, as reflected on fictitious Forms 8863 and 8812 filed with the IRS.

Pugh and Tate filed the returns electronically on behalf of taxpayers, through private and public internet connections.  Generally, they did not provide a copy of the return to the taxpayer, and the taxpayer did not know the amount of the refund claimed or was told an incorrect amount.    In the case of those individuals whose identities were used without their knowledge or permission, Pugh and Tate did not inform them that they received funds from the IRS and instead kept the proceeds for themselves, according to court documents.

The electronic filings included requests that the IRS direct-deposit refunds into bank accounts owned or controlled by Pugh.  After receiving the refunds, Pugh, Tate and their co-conspirators paid only a portion of the refund, if any, to the taxpayer.       

Pugh’s, Tate’s and their co-conspirators’ falsely inflated refund claims on the returns filed in the scheme resulted in the delivery of approximately $326,265 in illicit refunds to the conspirators, according to court documents. 

This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Om Kakani, following an investigation by the IRS – Criminal Investigations.

A Barberton man was sentenced to two years in prison for lying on his immigration documents by failing to disclose his role in the ethnically motivated murder of a Croatian couple during the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina, said Steven M. Dettelbach, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio, and Marlon Miller, Special Agent in Charge of HSI Detroit, which covers Michigan and Ohio.

Slobodan Mutic, 53, is expected to be deported upon completion of his sentence to Croatia, where he will stand trial for human-rights violations.

Mutic, a former soldier of the now-defunct rogue state Republika Serbian Krajina, pleaded guilty last year to one count of knowingly and willingly possessing a U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Form I-94, knowing it to be forged, counterfeited, altered, falsely made or to be have been procured by means of a false claim or statement.

"Our nation welcomes refugees, not human rights criminals,” Dettelbach said. “This defendant lied his way into this nation and does not deserve the privileges and freedoms this great nation offers. It is now up the legal system to ensure that he will be held to account for any of his actions in a proper court once he is returned to his home country."

“Today’s sentencing is another step toward Mr. Mutic’s removal from the United States,” Miller said. “This case underscores HSI’s commitment to ensuring that the United States is not perceived as a haven for individuals who have committed horrendous war crimes in their home countries.”

Mutic possessed a Form I-94 in 2012 that he fraudulently procured. Mutic, on or about August 2001, falsely claimed “no” when filling out immigration forms that asked if he had ever “been arrested, cited, charged, indicted, fined or imprisoned for breaking any law or ordinance…” and again when asked if he had “ever engaged in any genocide, otherwise ordered, incited, assisted or otherwise participated in the killing of any person because of race, religion, nationality ethnic origin or political opinion,” according to court documents.

Those answers were false. Mutic was arrested, detained for a month and questioned by local law enforcement about the murder of Stjepan and Paula Cindric. The answers also contradicted statements he made during a January 8, 1992 interview that were memorialized in an affidavit that Mutic signed, according to court documents.

In that affidavit, Mutic admitted to his participation in the murder of the Cindric family along with accomplice Dragan Perencevic. Mutic and Perencevic targeted the Cindrics because of their ethnicity. Mutic is also wanted for other crimes in Croatia, including the murder of Aleksandra Zivkovic, according to court documents.

This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Matthew J. Cronin and Karrie Howard following an investigation by Homeland Security Special Agent Timothy Stark and Homeland Security’s Human Rights Violators and War Crimes Center historian Michael MacQueen.

A criminal information was filed charging Gerald B. Searle, 51, Liberty Center, with receipt of material involving the sexual exploitation of a child, said Steven M. Dettelbach, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio.

The conduct took place between 2013 and 2015, according to the information

If convicted, the defendant’s sentence will be determined by the court after reviewing factors unique to this case, including the defendant’s prior criminal record, if any, the defendant’s role in the offense and the characteristics of the violation. In all cases the sentence will not exceed the statutory maximum and in most cases it will be less than the maximum.

The investigating agency in this case is the Office of the Inspector General, Sandusky, Ohio, with the assistance of the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation and the Erie County Sheriff’s Office. The case is being handled by Assistant United States Attorney Tracey Tangeman.

An information is only a charge and not evidence of guilt. Defendants are entitled to a fair trial in which it will be the government’s burden to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

The Justice Department announced today that Kent State University has agreed to pay $145,000 to settle a civil rights lawsuit alleging that the university had maintained a policy of not allowing students with psychological disabilities to keep emotional support animals in university-operated student housing.  Under the settlement agreement, which must still be approved by the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio, KSU will:

• pay $100,000 to two former students who sought and were denied a reasonable accommodation to keep an emotional support dog in their university-operated apartment;

• pay $30,000 to a fair housing organization that advocated on behalf of the students;

• pay $15,000 to the United States; and

• adopt a housing policy that will allow persons with psychological disabilities to keep animals with them in university housing when such animals provide necessary therapeutic benefits to such students and allowing the animal would not fundamentally alter the nature of the housing.            

“This settlement shows the department’s continued and strong commitment to ensuring that students in university housing are afforded the protections of the Fair Housing Act,” said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Vanita Gupta, head of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division.  “Those protections include accommodations for students with disabilities who need assistance animals in order to have an equal opportunity to enjoy the benefits of university housing.”

“Kent State University is to be commended for reaching an agreement that will benefit its students,” said U.S. Attorney Steven M. Dettelbach of the Northern District of Ohio.  “This agreement will help many people who are working hard to earn their fair share of the American dream.”

The proposed settlement would resolve a lawsuit filed by the department in 2014.  In that lawsuit, the department alleged that KSU violated the Fair Housing Act when, in 2010, it denied a request to allow a student with a psychological disability and her husband to keep an emotional support dog in their university-operated student apartment.  The students, along with the Fair Housing Advocates Association in Akron, Ohio, filed a complaint with the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).  HUD investigated the complaint, determined that KSU had violated the Fair Housing Act and referred the matter to the department.  Under the proposed settlement, KSU has agreed to change its policy to accommodate similar requests going forward.

“Providers of on-campus housing have the same obligation to comply with the Fair Housing Act as other housing providers,” said Gustavo Velasquez, HUD’s Assistant Secretary for Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity.  “Today’s settlement reinforces the ongoing commitment of HUD and the Justice Department to ensuring that individuals with disabilities are granted the accommodations they need to perform daily life functions.”  

The federal Fair Housing Act prohibits discrimination in housing on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, familial status, national origin and disability.  More information about the Civil Rights Division and the laws it enforces is available at www.justice.gov/crt.  Individuals who believe that they have been victims of housing discrimination can call the Justice Department at 1-800-896-7743, e-mail the Justice Department at fairhousing@usdoj.gov or contact HUD at 1-800-669-9777 or through HUD’s website at http://portal.hud.gov/hudportal/HUD?src=/program_offices/fair_housing_equal_opp.

The Justice Department announced today that Kent State University (KSU) has agreed to pay $145,000 to settle a civil rights lawsuit alleging that the university had maintained a policy of not allowing students with psychological disabilities to keep emotional support animals in university-operated student housing.  Under the settlement agreement, which must still be approved by the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio, KSU will:

• pay $100,000 to two former students who sought and were denied a reasonable accommodation to keep an emotional support dog in their university-operated apartment;

• pay $30,000 to a fair housing organization that advocated on behalf of the students;

• pay $15,000 to the United States; and

• adopt a housing policy that will allow persons with psychological disabilities to keep animals with them in university housing when such animals provide necessary therapeutic benefits to such students and allowing the animal would not fundamentally alter the nature of the housing. 

“This settlement shows the department’s continued and strong commitment to ensuring that students in university housing are afforded the protections of the Fair Housing Act,” said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Vanita Gupta, head of the Civil Rights Division.  “Those protections include accommodations for students with disabilities who need assistance animals in order to have an equal opportunity to enjoy the benefits of university housing.”

“Kent State University is to be commended for reaching an agreement that will benefit its students,” said U.S. Attorney Steven M. Dettelbach of the Northern District of Ohio.  “This agreement will help many people who are working hard to earn their fair share of the American dream.”

The proposed settlement would resolve a lawsuit filed by the department in 2014.  In that lawsuit, the department alleged that KSU violated the Fair Housing Act when, in 2010, it denied a request to allow a student with a psychological disability and her husband to keep an emotional support dog in their university-operated student apartment.  The students, along with the Fair Housing Advocates Association in Akron, Ohio, filed a complaint with the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).  HUD investigated the complaint, determined that KSU had violated the Fair Housing Act and referred the matter to the department.  Under the proposed settlement, KSU has agreed to change its policy to accommodate similar requests going forward.

“Providers of on-campus housing have the same obligation to comply with the Fair Housing Act as other housing providers,” said Gustavo Velasquez, HUD’s Assistant Secretary for Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity.  “Today’s settlement reinforces the ongoing commitment of HUD and the Justice Department to ensuring that individuals with disabilities are granted the accommodations they need to perform daily life functions.”

The federal Fair Housing Act prohibits discrimination in housing on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, familial status, national origin and disability.  More information about the Civil Rights Division and the laws it enforces is available at www.justice.gov/crt.  Individuals who believe that they have been victims of housing discrimination can call the Justice Department at 1-800-896-7743, e-mail the Justice Department at fairhousing@usdoj.gov or contact HUD at 1-800-669-9777 or through HUD’s website at http://portal.hud.gov/hudportal/HUD?src=/program_offices/fair_housing_equal_opp.

Kent State Consent Decree

A Bedford woman was sentenced to more than two years in prison and ordered to pay nearly $150,000 in restitution for an identity theft and tax fraud scheme, law enforcement officials announced.

Michelle Devine was sentenced to 28 months in prison by U.S. District Judge Dan Polster, and ordered to pay $149,616 in restitution. Devin, 44, pleaded guilty last year to one count of aggravated identity theft, four counts of theft of government property and one count of filing false claims for income tax refunds.

"This woman preyed on people's trust by posing as a legitimate tax preparer," said U.S Attorney Steven M. Dettelbach. "Instead, she abused that trust and stole money."

“Identity theft is a contemptible modern-day scourge,” said Guy A. Ficco, Acting Special Agent in Charge, IRS Criminal Investigation, Cincinnati Field Office.  “Individuals who commit refund fraud and identity theft of this magnitude and with this degree of trickery, dishonesty and deceit deserve to be punished to the fullest extent of the law.”

This case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney M. Kendra Klump following at investigation by the Internal Revenue Service -- Criminal Investigations.

“The Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice, the United States Attorney's Office and the Federal Bureau of Investigation have been monitoring the investigation that has been conducted regarding the death of Tamir Rice on Nov. 22, 2014. We will continue our independent review of this matter, assess all available materials and determine what actions are appropriate, given the strict burdens and requirements imposed by applicable federal civil rights laws.

“Additionally, the Department of Justice continues in its efforts to pursue ongoing and comprehensive reform pursuant to the consent decree in the federal, civil pattern and practice case filed before Chief Judge Solomon Oliver in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Ohio.”

An Avon Lake man was sentenced to 25 years in prison for fraudulently obtaining more than $10.6 million in loan proceeds, bribing the chief operating officer of the credit union to receive those loans, and laundering the proceeds, conduct which contributed to the collapse of the St. Paul Croatian Federal Credit Union, law enforcement officials said.

Gezim Selgjekaj, 44, was ordered to pay $16 million in restitution. A jury earlier this year found him guilty of one count of conspiracy, 15 counts of financial institution fraud, five counts of bribery and six counts of money laundering.

Selgjekaj received more than $10.6 million in fraudulent loanproceeds from the credit union between 2003 and 2010. Selgjekaj obtained the fraudulent loan proceeds using personal loan accounts, loan accounts he created in business names, including businesses that had previously ceased to exist or never existed at all, and loan accounts he created in the names of friends and family members who were unaware of Selgjekaj’sconduct, according to trial testimony and court documents.  Notably, between 2004 and 2008, Selgjekaj was incarcerated in a federal correctional institution on unrelated criminal charges.  According to court records and trial testimony, Selgjekajcontrolled others who went to the credit union and obtained loans on his behalf during his incarceration.  Some of the loan proceeds were then deposited into his prison account.

Also during this time, and in order to obtain the loan proceeds after defaulting on previously obtained loans and being incarcerated, Selgjekaj provided more than approximately $200,000 in cash and check bribes to Anthony Raguz, the credit union’s then-chief operating officer.

Most of those loans were never repaid, causing a loss to the credit union, according to trial testimony and court documents.

“This defendant is the latest in a line of people who abused the trust of a credit union members and an entire community,” said Steven M. Dettelbach, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio. “This defendant contributed to the pain, stress and hardship of thousands of families, and will not be held accountable for his crimes.”

“This sentence should send a message to those who would steal from others,” said Stephen D. Anthony, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Cleveland Office.

“Gezim Selgjekaj and his co-conspirators built a house of cards laced with a web of financial lies. The underlying structure fell apart and exposed these individuals for what they really are --thieves,” said Guy A. Ficco, Acting Special Agent in Charge, IRS Criminal Investigation, Cincinnati Field Office.  “Combining the financial investigative expertise of the IRS with the skills and resources of the FBI and the U.S. Attorney’s Office makes a formidable team for combating major, greed-driven crimes.”

Selgjekaj is the latest of more than two dozen people convicted of crimes related to the collapse of St. Paul Croatian Federal Credit Union. The credit union was closed and then liquidated in 2010 after sustaining approximately $170 million in total losses,with approximately $72.5 million of those losses tied to individual criminal fraud schemes, making it the largest credit union failure in American history.

A subsequent investigation and prosecutions revealed that more than two dozen people received fraudulent loans, some totaling millions of dollars, that were never repaid in exchange for cash bribes and other kickbacks to Raguz. Trial testimony revealed that Raguz received the most number of and the largest total amount of bribes from Selgjekaj. Raguz is currently serving a 14-year prison sentence.

This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. AttorneysBridget M. Brennan and Robert W. Kern following an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Internal Revenue Service – Criminal Investigations.

A Westlake cardiologist was sentenced to 20 years in prison for performing unnecessary catheterizations, tests, stent insertions and causing unnecessary coronary artery bypass surgeries as part of a scheme to overbill Medicare and other insurers, law enforcement officials said.

Dr. Harold Persaud, 56, was convicted earlier this year of one count of health care fraud, 13 counts of making false statements and one count of engaging in monetary transactions in property derived from criminal activity.

“This defendant used his medical license as a license to steal,” said First Assistant U.S. Attorney Carole S. Rendon. “He inflated Medicare billings, falsified cardiac care records and performing needless and sometimes invasive tests and procedures. This prison sentence is well deserved.” 

“Dr. Persaud violated the sacred trust between doctor and patient by ordering unnecessary tests, procedures and surgeries to line his pockets,” said Stephen D. Anthony, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Cleveland Office. “He ripped off taxpayers and put patients’ lives at risk.”

 “Dr. Persaud's systematic use of medically unnecessary tests and procedures, falsification of patient records, and submission of false billings to health care insurers added up to a toxic mixture of fraud at the expense of patient safety and well-being, and taxpayer dollars,” said Lamont Pugh III, Special Agent in Charge, U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, Office of Inspector General - Chicago Region.  “The OIG, along with our law enforcement partners, will continue to identify, investigate and seek the criminal prosecution of those who choose to exploit federally funded health care programs and the patients these programs serve.”

Persaud had a private medical practice at 29099 Health Campus Drive in Westlake and had hospital privileges at Fairview Hospital, St. John’s Medical Center and Southwest General Hospital, according to court documents and trial testimony.

Persaud devised a scheme to defraud and obtain money from Medicare and other insurers. The scheme took place between 2006 and 2012. According to court documents and trial testimony, his activities in furtherance of the scheme included:

• Persaud selected the billing code for each customer submitted to Medicare and private insurers, and used codes that reflected a service that was more costly than that which was actually performed;

• Persaud performed nuclear stress tests on patients that were not medically necessary;

• He knowingly recorded false results of patients’ nuclear stress tests to justify cardiac catheterization procedures that were not medically necessary;

• Persaud performed cardiac catheterizations on patients at the hospitals and falsely recorded the existence and extent of lesions (blockage) observed during the procedures;

• He recorded false symptoms in patient records to justify testing and procedures on patients;

• Persaud inserted cardiac stents in patients who did not have 70 percent or more blockage in the vessel that he stented and who did not have symptoms of blockage;

• He placed a stent in a stenosed artery that already had a functioning bypass, thus providing no medical benefit and increasing the risk of harm to the patient;

• He improperly referred patients for coronary artery bypass surgery when there was no medical necessity for such surgery, which benefitted Persaud by increasing the amount of follow-up testing he could perform and bill to Medicare and private insurers;

• Persaud performed medically unnecessary stent procedures, aortograms, renal angiograms and other procedures and tests.

As a result of this scheme, Persaud overbilled and caused the overbilling of Medicare and private insurers in the amount of approximately $29 million, of which Medicare and the private insurers paid approximately $5.7 million, according to court records.

A hearing is scheduled for January 27 to determine restitution.

This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Michael L. Collyer and Chelsea Rice following an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services – Office of Inspector General

William Lester, 21, of Sandusky, was charged with receiving and distributing visual depictions of real minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct, Steven M. Dettelbach, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio.

The indictment charges that from on or about May 14, 2013, through on or about November 8, 2013, Lester knowingly received and distributed, by computer, numerous computer files, which contained visual depictions of real minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct. 

If convicted, the defendant’s sentence will be determined by the court after review of factors unique to this case, including the defendant’s prior criminal record, if any, the defendant's role in the offense and the characteristics of the violation.  In all cases the sentence will not exceed the statutory maximum and in most cases it will be less than the maximum.

This case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Carol M. Skutnik.  The case was investigated by the Department of Homeland Security, Cleveland Office.

An indictment is only a charge and is not evidence of guilt.  A defendant is entitled to a fair trial in which it will be the government’s burden to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

 

A Westlake, Ohio, cardiologist was sentenced to 20 years in prison for performing unnecessary catheterizations, tests, stent insertions and causing unnecessary coronary artery bypass surgeries as part of a scheme to overbill Medicare and other insurers by $29 million, law enforcement officials said.

Dr. Harold Persaud, 56, was convicted earlier this year of one count of health care fraud, 13 counts of making false statements and one count of engaging in monetary transactions in property derived from criminal activity.

“This defendant used his medical license as a license to steal,” said First Assistant U.S. Attorney Carole S. Rendon.  “He inflated Medicare billings, falsified cardiac care records and performing needless and sometimes invasive tests and procedures.  This prison sentence is well deserved.” 

“Dr. Persaud violated the sacred trust between doctor and patient by ordering unnecessary tests, procedures and surgeries to line his pockets,” said Special Agent in Charge Stephen D. Anthony of the FBI’s Cleveland Office.  “He ripped off taxpayers and put patients’ lives at risk.”

“Dr. Persaud's systematic use of medically unnecessary tests and procedures, falsification of patient records and submission of false billings to health care insurers added up to a toxic mixture of fraud at the expense of patient safety and well-being and taxpayer dollars,” said Special Agent in Charge Lamont Pugh III of the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, Office of Inspector General - Chicago Region.  “The OIG, along with our law enforcement partners, will continue to identify, investigate and seek the criminal prosecution of those who choose to exploit federally funded health care programs and the patients these programs serve.”

Persaud had a private medical practice at 29099 Health Campus Drive in Westlake and had hospital privileges at Fairview Hospital, St. John’s Medical Center and Southwest General Hospital, according to court documents and trial testimony.

Persaud devised a scheme to defraud and obtain money from Medicare and other insurers.  The scheme took place between 2006 and 2012.  According to court documents and trial testimony, his activities in furtherance of the scheme included:

• Persaud selected the billing code for each customer submitted to Medicare and private insurers and used codes that reflected a service that was more costly than that which was actually performed;

• Persaud performed nuclear stress tests on patients that were not medically necessary;

• He knowingly recorded false results of patients’ nuclear stress tests to justify cardiac catheterization procedures that were not medically necessary;

• Persaud performed cardiac catheterizations on patients at the hospitals and falsely recorded the existence and extent of lesions (blockage) observed during the procedures;

• He recorded false symptoms in patient records to justify testing and procedures on patients;

• Persaud inserted cardiac stents in patients who did not have 70 percent or more blockage in the vessel that he stented and who did not have symptoms of blockage;

• He placed a stent in a stenosed artery that already had a functioning bypass, thus providing no medical benefit and increasing the risk of harm to the patient;

• He improperly referred patients for coronary artery bypass surgery when there was no medical necessity for such surgery, which benefitted Persaud by increasing the amount of follow-up testing he could perform and bill to Medicare and private insurers;

• Persaud performed medically unnecessary stent procedures, aortograms, renal angiograms and other procedures and tests.

As a result of this scheme, Persaud overbilled and caused the overbilling of Medicare and private insurers in the amount of approximately $29 million, of which Medicare and the private insurers paid approximately $5.7 million, according to court records.

A hearing is scheduled for Jan. 27, 2016, to determine restitution.

This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Michael L. Collyer and Chelsea Rice following an investigation by the FBI and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services – Office of Inspector General

A grand jury returned a 15-count superseding indictment charging Robert B. Ray, 52, of Lorain, with producing visual depictions of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct, receiving, and possessing child pornography, said Steven M. Dettelbach, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio.

Between 2009 and 2013, Ray induced or coerced 13 different minor children into sexually explicit conduct for the purpose of creating child pornography, according the the indictment.

If convicted, the defendant’s sentence will be determined by the Court after a review of factors unique to this case, including the defendant’s prior criminal record, if any, the defendant’s role in the offense, and the characteristics of the violation.  In all cases, the sentence will not exceed the statutory maximum and in most cases it will be less than the maximum.

The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Brian M. McDonough following an investigation by the FBI Cleveland Field Office, Elyria Resident Agency.

An indictment is only a charge and is not evidence of guilt.  A defendant is entitled to a fair trial in which it will be the government's burden to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

The former president of the Toledo Metro Federal Credit Union was charged in federal court related to using his corporate credit card for personal gain of more than $233,000, said Steven M. Dettelbach, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio.

Charles Robert Poore, 45, formerly of Toledo, now residing in Pittsburgh, was charged in a criminal information with one count of embezzlement.

Poore was president of the Toledo Metro Federal Credit Union and, as such, has a credit card for business expenses. Poore used that credit card to purchase goods from third-party vendors through an Amazon account. He then sold those items to the credit union using his corporate credit card at a signifcantly inflated cost. This conduct occurred between 2011 and 2014 and realized profits for Poore of approximately $233,933, according to the information.

If convicted, the defendant’s sentence will be determined by the Court after reviewing factors unique to this case, including the defendant’s prior criminal record, if any, the defendant’s role in the offense and the characteristics of the violation.  In all cases the sentence will not exceed the statutory maximum and in most cases it will be less than the maximum.

The investigating agency in this case is the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The case is being handled by Assistant United States Attorney Michael J. Freeman.

An information is only a charge and is not evidence of guilt.  Defendants are entitled to a fair trial in which it will be the government’s burden to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

A federal grand jury indicted Keith E. Bass, 20, of Cleveland, for the robberies of three separate banks in Northeast Ohio, said Steven M. Dettelbach, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio. 

The indictment alleges that on September 1, 2015, Bass entered the PNC Bank at 7101 Broadway Avenue, in Cleveland, and robbed the bank of $3,119. On September 9, 2015, Bass entered the First Merit Bank at 22595 Lakeshore Boulevard, in Euclid, and robbed the bank of $1,250. On November 9, 2015, Bass entered the Citizens Bank at 23300 Lakeshore Boulevard, in Euclid, and robbed the bank of $5,140, according to the indictment.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation conducted the investigation in conjunction with the Cleveland Police Department and the Euclid Police Department.  The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Kevin R. Filiatraut.

If convicted, the defendant’s sentence will be determined by the court after review of factors unique to this case, including the defendant’s prior criminal record, if any, the defendant’s role in the offense, and the characteristics of the violation.  In all cases, the sentence will not exceed the statutory maximum and in most cases it will be less than the maximum.

An indictment is only a charge and is not evidence of guilt.  A defendant is entitled to a fair trial, in which it will be the government’s burden to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

 

U.S. Attorney Steven M. Dettelbach today announced the selection of the Northern District of Ohio as one of only six federal districts designated to participate in the Anti-Trafficking Coordination Team (ACTeam) Initiative, an interagency federal law enforcement initiative aimed at streamlining the investigation and prosecution of federal human trafficking offenses.

“This designation will allow us to build on our success here in Northern Ohio by devoting more resources to investigating and prosecuting human trafficking,” Dettelbach said. “The cases we have prosecuted remind us time and again that labor trafficking and sex trafficking hide in plain sight.”

“Human trafficking violates the rights of the most vulnerable in our community,” said Stephen D. Anthony, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Cleveland office. “The FBI aggressively pursues justice for these victims and this initiative will help us investigate these cases.”

Dettelbach’s announcement follows the joint announcement of Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch, Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson, and Secretary of Labor Thomas E. Perez earlier today designating the following cities as Phase II ACTeam sites:  Cleveland, Ohio; Minneapolis, Minnesota; Newark, New Jersey; Portland, Maine; Portland, Oregon; and Sacramento, California.

The sites were selected by unanimous interagency consensus of the Federal Enforcement Working Group, comprised of national anti-trafficking experts of the Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division’s Human Trafficking Prosecution Unit, the Executive Office of United States Attorneys, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Department of Homeland Security’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and the Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division and Office of the Inspector General.

ACTeams are aimed at developing high-impact human trafficking investigations and prosecutions involving forced labor, international sex trafficking, and sex trafficking of adults by force, fraud, and coercion, complementing Project Safe Childhood and related efforts aimed at combating child sexual exploitation, including child sex trafficking.  ACTeams bring together federal prosecutors and federal agents from multiple federal investigative agencies to develop and implement proactive anti-trafficking case identification, investigation, and prosecution strategies in close coordination with one another and with national anti-trafficking subject matter experts.

Nearly 50 people have been indicted in federal court in the Northern District of Ohio for human trafficking and related offenses since 2010. Among them:

U.S. v. Callahan, et al.: Jessica Hunt is serving 32 years in prison and Jordie Callahan is serving 30 years in prison after a jury convicted them of abusing a developmentally impaired woman in Ashland. The adult victim and her toddler were forced to live in a squalid basement without a bathroom or running water.  They were only permitted to come upstairs when the adult victim was ordered to clean and do chores around the home. 

U.S. v. Mack, et al.: Jeremy Mack is serving life in prison for forcing – through violence, threats and coercion -- girls to engage in commercial sex acts for his benefit. Mack would not permit the girls to leave the house unescorted (with few exceptions) and terrorized them with firearms.

U.S. v. Robinson, et al.: Brandon Robinson was sentenced to eight years in prison after forcing a 14 year-old runaway to provide sexual services at truck stops along I-75 in Ohio. 

U.S. v. Tutstone: Eric Tutstone was sentenced to more than 11 years in prison for attempting to sell a 16-year-old girl for $300 to a woman he believed was a “madam.” Tutstone arranged for the “sale” to take place at a Starbucks in downtown Cleveland.

During Phase I of the ACTeam Initiative, Phase I Pilot ACTeams were convened in Atlanta, Georgia; El Paso, Texas; Kansas City, Missouri; Los Angeles, California; Memphis, Tennessee; and Miami, Florida.  Phase I proved highly successful, with ACTeam Districts collectively increasing prosecutions by 119 percent, compared to 35 percent nationwide during the same two-year period. 

Based on the outstanding results of Phase I, Attorney General Lynch, Secretary of Homeland Security Johnson, and Secretary of Labor Perez launched Phase II on June 25, 2015 by soliciting joint applications from United States Attorneys’ Offices and their federal law enforcement partners nationwide.

“Human trafficking robs victims of their liberty, exploits them for labor and for sex, and infringes not only on their rights, but on their essential humanity,” said Attorney General Loretta Lynch.  “Through the ACTeam Initiative, we are harnessing resources across the federal government to ensure that our multi-agency fight against human trafficking is as comprehensive and effective as possible.  In the days and months ahead, the Department of Justice will continue to work alongside our federal partners to prosecute wrongdoing, support survivors, and bring this devastating crime to an end.”

“The Anti-Trafficking Coordination Team (ACTeam) Initiative is an important tool in our collective ability to combat sex trafficking, forced labor and domestic servitude here in the United States,” said Secretary Jeh C. Johnson of Homeland Security.  “It highlights our commitment to increase capacity to rescue victims and bring perpetrators of these terrible crimes to justice.  Our collective efforts are amplified when we work together in furtherance of shared missions like this.  And, through DHS’s Blue Campaign, we will remain focused on ending human trafficking in the United States.”

“A trafficking victim shouldn’t have to spend time trying to determine whether they have a Department of Labor issue or a Department of Justice issue,” said Secretary Thomas Perez of the Department of Labor.  “Their basic rights are being violated, and we can accomplish so much more to redress those crimes when we work together.  The Anti-Trafficking Coordination Team Initiative, by bringing our respective departments’ collective resources and expertise to bear, is helping us build a whole even greater than the sum of our individual parts.”

“Human trafficking is a modern day form of slavery that destroys lives and exploits the most vulnerable in our society,” said FBI Director James B. Comey.  “These Anti-Trafficking Coordination Teams are the most effective way to investigate human trafficking by allowing us to work in a collaborative, victim-oriented manner.”

The Attorney General has declared efforts to bring human traffickers to justice and to restore the lives of human trafficking survivors be among the highest priorities of the Department of Justice. 

A 28-count federal indictment was unsealed today, charging five men with crimes related to a series of carjackings in Cleveland’s Tremont neighborhood, said Steven M. Dettelbach, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio, and Stephen D. Anthony, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Cleveland office.

Indicted are: Kenneth Jackson, Jr., 19, of Cleveland; Tervon’tae Taylor, 22, of Cleveland Heights; D’wan Dillard, Jr., 19, of Cleveland; Antowine Palmer, 23, of Cleveland, and Calvin Rembert, 22, of Cleveland. The charges include carjacking and multiple counts of brandishing a firearm during a crime of violence. Palmer is also charged with being a felon in possession of a firearm.

Conduct alleged in the indictment includes six different armed robberies that took place in July and August 2015.

“Those who use guns to terrorize our community must be held accountable,” Dettelbach said. “These charges entail violent actions including using firearms to take what they wanted from people. The FBI and Cleveland police did an outstanding job finding and arresting this crew.”

“Those indicted terrorized victims and the city with their dangerous, gun wielding car thefts,” Anthony said. “The Violent Crime Task Force and our local partners are committed to aggressively investigate predators who choose to engage in heinous acts of violence against our citizens.”   

This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Kelly Galvin and Kevin Filiatraut following an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Cleveland Division of Police.

If convicted, the defendants’ sentences will be determined by the court after a review of the federal sentencing guidelines and factors unique to the case, including the defendant’s prior criminal record (if any), the defendant’s role in the offense and the characteristics of the violation.

An indictment is only charge is not evidence of guilt. A defendant is entitled to a fair trial in which it will be the government’s burden to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

A Cleveland man was indicted on two counts related to human trafficking, said Steven M. Dettelbach, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio, and Stephen D. Anthony, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Cleveland Office.

Ronnie L. Pratt trafficked two underage girls. He did this by taking photos of his girls and posting the photos on www.backpage.com. Pratt handled all text communications with potential customers and transported the girls to “dates.” He kept a portion of the money they were paid for commercial sex acts, according to court documents.

One of the girls was 13 when she began working for Pratt, according to court documents

Pratt had a gun that he used to intimidate at least one of the girls, according to court documents.

The conduct took place between July and November 2015, according to the indictment. The investigation is ongoing.

This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Bridget M. Brennan following an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

If convicted, the defendant’s sentence will be determined by the court after a review of the federal sentencing guidelines and factors unique to the case, including the defendant’s prior criminal record (if any), the defendant’s role in the offense and the characteristics of the violation.

An indictment is only a charge and is not evidence of guilt. A defendant is entitled to a fair trial in which it will be the government’s burden to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

The United States announced today that it has joined with the state of Ohio in seeking the termination of a consent decree with the Ohio Department of Youth Services (DYS), recognizing Ohio’s successful elimination of its use of disciplinary solitary confinement on children in its custody and its improvement of individualized mental health treatment for children formerly at risk of such confinement. 

DYS pledged in the consent decree on May 21, 2014, to dramatically reduce and eventually eliminate its use of solitary confinement on children in its custody.  DYS also committed to ensure that children in its juvenile facilities receive individualized mental health treatment to prevent and address the conditions and behaviors that led to solitary confinement.  Ohio also committed to reduce the potential harms caused by solitary confinement by increasing access to therapeutic, educational and recreational services while a child is in solitary confinement and addressing the child’s behavior that led to acts of violence. 

The consent decree resolved allegations that Ohio subjected children with mental health needs to harmful solitary confinement and withheld treatment and programming, in violation of their constitutional rights.  The consent decree included performance standards to measure compliance, and the monitors in the United States and S.H. cases monitored compliance jointly.  In the order of termination, the court concluded that Ohio had complied with the terms and conditions of the consent decree.

In granting the joint motion to terminate the consent decree, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio noted the “remarkable improvement” in conditions of confinement at DYS juvenile facilities.  The court commended DYS for numerous improvements, including the abolition of the practice of disciplinary solitary confinement, its “vastly improved” mental health services and a reduction in the incarcerated population from over 2000 children to fewer than 500 today.  The experts who monitored the consent decree prepared and filed with the court a detailed report that explained the reforms DYS made “to memorialize [DYS’] major policy and practice decisions for the benefit of others in the field.”

“The state of Ohio, the administrators of the Department of Youth Services and their counsel are to be commended for their commitment to reforming Ohio’s juvenile correctional facilities,” said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Vanita Gupta, head of the Civil Rights Division.  “Ohio’s achievements can serve as a model throughout the nation.” 

“The termination of this consent decree illustrates state and federal cooperation to provide safer practices for children in Ohio juvenile facilities,” said U.S. Attorney Carter Stewart of the Southern District of Ohio.

“We are gratified that we were able to work together with our state partners to make juvenile justice in Ohio more rehabilitative,” said U.S. Attorney Steven M. Dettelbach of the Northern District of Ohio. 

The department first investigated conditions at Ohio juvenile correctional facilities in 2007 and found constitutional deficiencies in Ohio’s use of physical force, mental health care, grievance investigation and processing and use of solitary confinement.  In June 2008, the department entered into a consent decree with Ohio to remedy these violations at two facilities that are now closed – the Scioto Juvenile Correctional Facility and the Marion Juvenile Correctional Facility.  Simultaneously, private plaintiffs in the case S.H. v. Reed entered into a consent decree with Ohio regarding similar deficiencies at all of the state’s juvenile correctional facilities.  However, between November 2013 and January 2014, data from the monitoring of both consent decrees revealed that Ohio had continued to use unlawful solitary confinement on children at Scioto and in the other facilities. 

The Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 authorizes the department to seek a remedy for a pattern or practice of conduct that violates the constitutional or federal statutory rights of youth in juvenile justice institutions.  Please visit the Civil Rights Division’s website to learn more about this act and other laws the Civil Rights Division enforces.

This agreement is due to the efforts of the Civil Rights Division’s Special Litigation Section, the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Southern District of Ohio and the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Northern District of Ohio.  The agreement was also due to the work of plaintiffs’ counsel in S.H., Alphonse Gerhardstein of Gerhardstein & Branch Co. LPA and Kim Tandy of the Children’s Law Center Inc., and to the leadership of DYS.

The United States announced today that it has joined with the state of Ohio in seeking the termination of a consent decree with the Ohio Department of Youth Services (DYS), recognizing Ohio’s successful elimination of its use of disciplinary solitary confinement on children in its custody and its improvement of individualized mental health treatment for children formerly at risk of such confinement.

DYS pledged in the consent decree on May 21, 2014, to dramatically reduce and eventually eliminate its use of solitary confinement on children in its custody.  DYS also committed to ensure that children in its juvenile facilities receive individualized mental health treatment to prevent and address the conditions and behaviors that led to solitary confinement.  Ohio also committed to reduce the potential harms caused by solitary confinement by increasing access to therapeutic, educational and recreational services while a child is in solitary confinement and addressing the child’s behavior that led to acts of violence.

The consent decree resolved allegations that Ohio subjected children with mental health needs to harmful solitary confinement and withheld treatment and programming, in violation of their constitutional rights.  The consent decree included performance standards to measure compliance, and the monitors in the United States and S.H. cases monitored compliance jointly.  In the order of termination, the court concluded that Ohio had complied with the terms and conditions of the consent decree.

In granting the joint motion to terminate the consent decree, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio noted the “remarkable improvement” in conditions of confinement at DYS juvenile facilities.  The court commended DYS for numerous improvements, including the abolition of the practice of disciplinary solitary confinement, its “vastly improved” mental health services and a reduction in the incarcerated population from over 2000 children to fewer than 500 today.  The experts who monitored the consent decree prepared and filed with the court a detailed report that explained the reforms DYS made “to memorialize [DYS’] major policy and practice decisions for the benefit of others in the field.”

“The state of Ohio, the administrators of the Department of Youth Services and their counsel are to be commended for their commitment to reforming Ohio’s juvenile correctional facilities,” said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Vanita Gupta, head of the Civil Rights Division.  “Ohio’s achievements can serve as a model throughout the nation.” 

“The termination of this consent decree illustrates state and federal cooperation to provide safer practices for children in Ohio juvenile facilities,” said U.S. Attorney Carter Stewart of the Southern District of Ohio.

“We are gratified that we were able to work together with our state partners to make juvenile justice in Ohio more rehabilitative,” said U.S. Attorney Steven M. Dettelbach of the Northern District of Ohio. 

The department first investigated conditions at Ohio juvenile correctional facilities in 2007 and found constitutional deficiencies in Ohio’s use of physical force, mental health care, grievance investigation and processing and use of solitary confinement.  In June 2008, the department entered into a consent decree with Ohio to remedy these violations at two facilities that are now closed – the Scioto Juvenile Correctional Facility and the Marion Juvenile Correctional Facility.  Simultaneously, private plaintiffs in the case S.H. v. Reed entered into a consent decree with Ohio regarding similar deficiencies at all of the state’s juvenile correctional facilities.  However, between November 2013 and January 2014, data from the monitoring of both consent decrees revealed that Ohio had continued to use unlawful solitary confinement on children at Scioto and in the other facilities. 

The Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 authorizes the department to seek a remedy for a pattern or practice of conduct that violates the constitutional or federal statutory rights of youth in juvenile justice institutions.  Please visit the Civil Rights Division’s website to learn more about this act and other laws the Civil Rights Division enforces.

This agreement is due to the efforts of the Civil Rights Division’s Special Litigation Section, the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Southern District of Ohio and the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Northern District of Ohio.  The agreement was also due to the work of plaintiffs’ counsel in S.H., Alphonse Gerhardstein of Gerhardstein & Branch Co. LPA and Kim Tandy of the Children’s Law Center Inc., and to the leadership of DYS.

Ohio Monitors Final Report

Ohio Report on Transformation

Order Terminating Consent Decree

A Summit County councilwoman was named in an 11-count federal indictment, charged with taking cash bribes and other things of value in exchange for official actions, including help with court cases, impeding a pending IRS investigation and assistance obtaining a liquor license, said Steven M. Dettelbach, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio, and Stephen D. Anthony, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Cleveland office.

Tamela Lee, 57, of Akron, was indicted on six counts: conspiracy to commit honest services mail and wire fraud, honest services mail fraud, Hobbs Act conspiracy, violating the Hobbs Act, obstruction of justice and making false statements to law enforcement.

“The charges in this case are extremely serious, because our public officials owe the community the highest level of integrity and honesty,” Dettelbach said. “Working with the FBI, we will continue to pursue corruption allegations so that the public can trust its elected officials.”

“Ms. Lee and the three other defendants must be held accountable for their crimes,” Anthony said. “She was supposed to lawfully represent the people that elected her, but rather, was motivated by her own self interests.  The FBI will continue to root out public corruption, whether it is elected officials that violate their oath and the law or citizens that bribe them to do so.”

Three others were also indicted.

Omar Abdelqader, 49, of North Canton, was indicted on seven counts: conspiracy to commit honest services mail and wire fraud, honest services mail fraud, Hobbs Act conspiracy, violating the Hobbs Act, obstruction of justice and two counts of making false statements to law enforcement.

Abdelrahman Abdelqader, 42, of Canton, was indicted on two counts: obstruction of justice and making false statements to law enforcement. Samir Abdelqader, 19, of Fairlawn, was indicted on one count of making false statements to law enforcement.

Omar Abdelqader was affiliated with several convenience stores and other businesses in the Akron area, including the Bi-Rite on Diagnonal Road. Abdelrahman Abdelqader is his brother and Samir Abdelqader is his nephew, according to the indictment.

Lee solicited and accepted things from Omar Abdelqader, including money, loans, campaign contributions, home improvements, home maintenance and consumer goods. These were provided directly by Omar Abdelqader, or through Bi-Rite, according to the indictment.

In return, Lee performed and promised to perform official acts for Omar Abdelqader and other businesses in Akron for which he served as a conduit to Lee. These actions included helping Omar Abdelqader and his designees navigate government bureaucracy, achieve favorable outcomes in judicial and administrative proceedings and obtain streamlined access to information, according to the indictment.

For example, on July 5, 2013, Lee caused to be sent a letter to the State of Ohio Liquor Control Commission on behalf of Person 7’s store, recommending approval of a liquor license application.

On June 8, 2014, Omar and Samir Abdelqader discussed Samir obtaining a bond regarding criminal charges he was facing. About 40 minutes later, Omar and Lee discussed the councilwoman emailing or calling the judge. On June 12, Lee called Judge 2’s chambers several times. The next day Lee asked Omar for money, and he directed her to the Bi-Rite to collect the money, according to the indictment.

On June 14, 2014, Lee sent a text message to Omar informing him that the judge and bailiff returned her call. She then sent a text message to Omar stating: “I am going to bed, I am angry and frustrated and broke…bye,” according to the indictment.

Later that day, Omar instructed Lee to send her daughter to the Bi-Rite to pick up cash. Three days later, Lee spoke to Judge 2 and told the judge she was related to Samir Abdelqader, according to the indictment.

In July 2014, Lee and Omar spoke repeatedly about fundraising for her campaign. Omar told Person 9 that he had collected $800 in donations for Lee. Omar explained the Lee provided service. “In other words, I am keeping her because we need her, man,” Omar told Person 9, who responded: “She is better than an attorney to us!” according to the indictment.

This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Antoinette T. Bacon and Linda Barr following an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, with assistance from the Akron Police Department.

If convicted, the defendants’ sentences will be determined by the court after a review of the federal sentencing guidelines and factors unique to the case, including the defendant’s prior criminal record (if any), the defendant’s role in the offense and the characteristics of the violation.

An indictment is only charge and not evidence of guilt. A defendant is entitled to a fair trial in which it will be the government’s burden to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

A six-count indictment was filed today charging an Akron man for soliciting the murder of members of the U.S. military.

Terrence J. McNeil, 25, was indicted on three counts of solicitation of a crime of violence and three counts of threatening military personnel.

The indictment was announced by Assistant Attorney General John P. Carlin, U.S. Attorney Steven M. Dettelbach of the Northern District of Ohio and Special Agent in Charge Stephen D. Anthony of the FBI’s Cleveland Division.

“According to the indictment, Terrence McNeil solicited the murder of members of our military by disseminating ISIL’s violent rhetoric, circulating detailed U.S. military personnel information and explicitly calling for the killing of American service members in their homes and communities,” said Assistant Attorney General Carlin.  “ISIL and its followers continue to use social media in an attempt to incite violence around the world, including in the United States.  The National Security Division’s highest priority is counterterrorism and we will use all of our tools to disrupt threats and acts of violence against our military members and their families.”

“We owe it to our servicemen and women to protect their safety at home after they fought abroad to protect our freedom,” said U.S. Attorney Dettelbach.  “This defendant is charged with urging harm to our men and women in uniform and will now answer for those threats.”

“While we aggressively defend First Amendment rights, the individual arrested went far beyond free speech by reposting names and addresses of 100 U.S. service members, all with the intent to have them killed,” said Special Agent in Charge Anthony.  “We will remain vigilant in our efforts to stop those who wish to support these despicable acts.”

According to the indictment:

McNeil maintained social media accounts on several social media web sites, including Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr. He repeatedly professed his support on social media for the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), a designated foreign terrorist organization.

On or about Sept. 24, 2015, using a Tumblr account, McNeil reblogged a file with the banner “Islamic State Hacking Division,” followed by “Target: United States Military” and “Leak: Addresses of 100 U.S. Military Personnel.”

The file type is a .gif file, which allows multiple still images to be looped in one file, with a timed delay between each image.  The text of the first file reads “O Brothers in America, know that the jihad against the crusaders is not limited to the lands of the Khilafah, it is a world-wide jihad and their war is not just a war against the Islamic State, it is a war against Islam…Know that it is wajib (translated to “necessary”) for you to kill these kuffar! and now we have made it easy for you by giving you addresses, all you need to do is take the final step, so what are you waiting for? Kill them in their own lands, behead them in their own homes, stab them to death as they walk their streets thinking that they are safe…”

The file then loops several dozen photographs, purportedly of U.S. military personnel, along with their respective name, address and military branch.

The final image looped is a picture of a handgun and a knife with text that reads “…and kill them wherever you find them…”

On Oct. 3, 2015, McNeil posted on his Twitter account: “Released - Address of the US Navy Seal [R.O] who killed Sheikh Osama Bin Laden R.A. - #GoForth #RunRobertRun.”

The defendant included in his post an embedded link that when clicked revealed the purported address of R.O. and a link to R.O.’s purported photograph. The link further stated that R.O. “is a mummy’s boy who has been trying to hide yet still lives with his father…and mother…In between going around America to conferences boasting at how his ‘claim to fame’ is killing Sheikh Osama Bin Laden R.A. …I am posting his address to brothers & to Al Qaeda in the U.S. as a number one target.”

On Oct. 3, 2015, McNeil posted the content regarding R.O. and his address and photograph from the embedded link described above onto his Tumblr page. McNeil added the statement, “don’t let this kafir sleep peacefully,” to his Tumblr post.

If convicted, a defendant’s sentence will be determined by the court after review of factors unique to this case, including the defendant’s prior criminal history, if any, the defendant’s role in the offense and the characteristics of the violation.  Each solicitation count carries a statutory maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, and each threat count carries a statutory maximum sentence of five years in prison.

An indictment is only a charge and not evidence of guilt. It is the government’s burden to prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt, and a defendant is presumed innocent until that time.

The case is being investigated by the FBI.  This case is being prosecuted by U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Northern District of Ohio and the National Security Division’s Counterterrorism Section following an investigation by the Cleveland FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force, which is comprised of local, state and Federal agencies from Northeast Ohio. The Cleveland FBI would like to thank the following partners in this investigation: Akron Police Department, University of Akron Police Department, Customs and Border Protection, Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority Transit Police, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement - Enforcement and Removal Operations.

A Youngstown man was arrested today to face charges that he illegally possessed a firearm, said Steven M. Dettelbach, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio.

Brian K. Bellard, 43, possessed a Smith and Wesson, model SD40VE, .40 caliber pistol, and ammunition in October, despite a previous convictiion for cocaine, trafficking, according to the indictment.

If convicted, the defendant’s sentence will be determined by the Court after review of factors unique to this case, including the defendant’s prior criminal record, if any, the defendant’s role in the offense and the characteristics of the violations.  In all cases, the sentence will not exceed the statutory maximum and, in most cases, it will be less than the maximum.

The investigation preceding the indictment was conducted by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the Youngstown Police Department.   The matter is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Jason M. Katz.

An indictment is only a charge and is not evidence of guilt.  A defendant is entitled to a fair trial in which it will be the government’s burden to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

A six-count indictment was filed today charging an Akron, Ohio, man for soliciting the murder of members of the U.S. military.

Terrence J. McNeil, 25, was indicted on three counts of solicitation of a crime of violence and three counts of threatening military personnel.  He was arrested on Nov. 12, 2015, on federal charges that he solicited the murder of members of the U.S. military.

The charge was announced by Assistant Attorney General for National Security John P. Carlin, U.S. Attorney Steven M. Dettelbach of the Northern District of Ohio and Special Agent in Charge Stephen D. Anthony of the FBI’s Cleveland Division.

“According to the indictment, Terrence McNeil solicited the murder of members of our military by disseminating ISIL’s violent rhetoric, circulating detailed U.S. military personnel information and explicitly calling for the killing of American service members in their homes and communities,” said Assistant Attorney General Carlin.  “ISIL and its followers continue to use social media in an attempt to incite violence around the world, including in the United States.  The National Security Division's highest priority is counterterrorism and we will use all of our tools to disrupt threats and acts of violence against our military members and their families.”

“We owe it to our servicemen and women to protect their safety at home after they fought abroad to protect our freedom,” said U.S. Attorney Dettelbach.  “This defendant is charged with urging harm to our men and women in uniform and will now answer for those threats.”

“While we aggressively defend First Amendment rights, the individual arrested went far beyond free speech by reposting names and addresses of 100 U.S. service members, all with the intent to have them killed,” said Special Agent in Charge Anthony.  “We will remain vigilant in our efforts to stop those who wish to support these despicable acts.”

According to the indictment:

McNeil maintained social media accounts on several social media web sites, including Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr.  He repeatedly professed his support on social media for the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), a designated foreign terrorist organization.

On or about Sept. 24, 2015, using a Tumblr account, McNeil reblogged a file with the banner “Islamic State Hacking Division,” followed by “Target: United States Military” and “Leak: Addresses of 100 U.S. Military Personnel.”

The file type is a .gif file, which allows multiple still images to be looped in one file, with a timed delay between each image.  The text of the first file reads “O Brothers in America, know that the jihad against the crusaders is not limited to the lands of the Khilafah, it is a world-wide jihad and their war is not just a war against the Islamic State, it is a war against Islam…Know that it is wajib (translated to “necessary”) for you to kill these kuffar! and now we have made it easy for you by giving you addresses, all you need to do is take the final step, so what are you waiting for? Kill them in their own lands, behead them in their own homes, stab them to death as they walk their streets thinking that they are safe…”

The file then loops several dozen photographs, purportedly of U.S. military personnel, along with their respective name, address and military branch.

The final image looped is a picture of a handgun and a knife with text that reads “…and kill them wherever you find them…”

On Oct. 3, 2015, McNeil posted on his Twitter account: “Released - Address of the US Navy Seal [R.O] who killed Sheikh Osama Bin Laden R.A. - #GoForth #RunRobertRun.”

The defendant included in his post an embedded link that when clicked revealed the purported address of R.O. and a link to R.O.’s purported photograph.  The link further stated that R.O. “is a mummy’s boy who has been trying to hide yet still lives with his father…and mother…In between going around America to conferences boasting at how his ‘claim to fame’ is killing Sheikh Osama Bin Laden R.A. …I am posting his address to brothers & to Al Qaeda in the U.S. as a number one target.”

On Oct. 3, 2015, McNeil posted the content regarding R.O. and his address and photograph from the embedded link described above onto his Tumblr page.  McNeil added the statement, “don’t let this kafir sleep peacefully,” to his Tumblr post.

If convicted, a defendant’s sentence will be determined by the court after review of factors unique to this case, including the defendant’s prior criminal history, if any, the defendant’s role in the offense and the characteristics of the violation.  Each solicitation count carries a statutory maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, and each threat count carries a statutory maximum sentence of five years in prison. 

An indictment is only a charge and not evidence of guilt. It is the government’s burden to prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt, and a defendant is presumed innocent until that time.

The case is being investigated by the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force in Cleveland.  This case is being prosecuted by U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Northern District of Ohio and the National Security Division’s Counterterrorism Section.

McNeil Indictment

A former police officer was convicted of illegally selling firearms to people he knew were felons, said Steven M. Dettelbach, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio, and Stephen D. Anthony, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Cleveland office.

Kevin R. Lumpkin, 29, of North Olmsted, is scheduled to be sentenced Feb. 29.

A jury convicted him after a weeklong trial of selling a Hi-Point .45-caliber rifle and a Ruger .380-caliber pistol on different occassions to people he knew were convicted of felonies and therefore forbidden from possessing a firearm. These sales took place between 2011 and 2013, when Lumpkin was a North Randall police officer, according to trial testimony.

This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys M. Kendra Klump and Edward Feran following an investigation by the FBI.

A Virigina man was convicted of traveling across state lines to engage in sexual conduct with an underage girl, said Steven M. Dettelbach, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio

David W. Vickers, 42, of Leesburg, Virginia, was convicted on three counts: receiving and distributing visual depictions of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct, enticement, and travel with intent to engage in illicit sexual conduct.

Vickers communicated online with what he believed to be a 29-year-old Ohio woman and her 13-year-old daughter. In fact, Vickers was communicating with law enforcement investigators. Vickers sent 20 child pornography videos, 11 bestiality videos and discussed how he liked to drug and tie up children. In January 2015, he travelled to Ohio for the purposes of having sex with what he believed to be a 13-year-old girl and was arrested, according to court documents.

He is scheduled to be sentenced on March 15. He faces a recommended sentencing guideline range of 30 years to life in prison.

The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Brian M. McDonough and Kevin Filiatraut following an investigation by the Ohio Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force and the United States Secret Service.