Pictured are Former Cuyahoga County Commissioner Jimmy Dimora, also a former chair of the Cuyahoga County Democratic Party (in eye glasses), Federal District Court Judge Sara Lioi (in Black attire), Former Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas Judge Bridget McCafferty (in red attire) and Former Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas Judge Steven Terry ( Black man in grey attire)
By Kathy Wray Coleman, editor-in-chief
(www.clevelandurbannews.com) /
(www.kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com)
CINCINNATI, Ohio-Former Cuyahoga County Commissioner Jimmy Dimora, also a former chair of the powerful Cuyahoga County Democratic Party, is asking a federal appeals court to reverse his convictions on 32 corruption-related charges, including racketeering, and his attorneys want a new trial.
Oral arguments were held yesterday morning before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit in Cincinnati, which will issue its ruling in upcoming months. Dimora did not attend the hearing.
His lawyers say that Federal District Court Judge Sara Lioi out of Akron is biased and that she erred to the extent that a new trial is warranted.
Appeals are typically about whether a trial court judge erred or did wrong in civil, criminal and other court cases, and whether that wrongdoing merits a reversal of the trial court proceedings at issue, sometimes via a new trial, and other times overturning the convictions outright, among other remedies the appeals court panel might order.
Dimora, 59, was sentenced to 28 years in prison. He is now serving his sentence at the Federal Transfer Center in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
In a brief filed by attorney Christian J. Grostic on behalf of Dimora, the former county commissioner's attorneys told the appeals court that "Dimora was deprived of a fair trial" and that the government convinced Lioi to "exclude relevant, admissible and powerful exculpatory evidence of Dimora's intent."
In the brief, Dimora argues in part that he "did not solicit or accept things of value knowing they were given in exchange for official acts." And that he reported the gifts on ethics reports.
A three-judge panel heard the oral arguments by both sides, federal prosecutors telling the three judges that a mountain of evidence supports Dimora's bribery and other convictions.
But whether arguments made to the appellate panel and in briefs filed by Dimora's legal team, including the judge's refusal to admit evidence at trial that Dimora reported the gifts on ethics reports , gifts the prosecution says were bribes, are enough for a new trial, remains to be seen.
The former county commissioner's convictions came as part of an ongoing county corruption probe that has netted over 60 convictions or guilty pleas, including two former Cuyahoga County Common Pleas judges and former county auditor Frank Russo, who is serving a 22-year sentence.
By Kathy Wray Coleman, 
