LIT UPDATE (JULY 2023)
Appeals court partially rules for former judge in probate case
A visiting panel remanded part of the case back to the trial court
Feb 26, 2021
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio (WKBN) — A panel of visiting judges in the 7th District Court of Appeals this week partially ruled in favor of an appeal filed by former Mahoning County Court Judge Diane Vettori.
In an opinion issued Thursday, the visiting judges ordered that a ruling ordering Vettori to pay over $12,000 in interest in an estate case that Vettori’s lawyers claimed was a “prejudgment” order be vacated but ruled against her claim that the judge in her probate case was not impartial.
Vettori was sentenced in June 2019 to 30 months in federal prison after pleading guilty to stealing several hundred thousand dollars from the estate of a client she once represented in a probate case.
Vettori served as a judge in area court in Sebring from 2002 until the time the charges were filed against her, when she was suspended. She has since lost her law license.
In a separate case in Mahoning County Probate Court, Vettori was ordered to pay back over $185,000, including the over $12,000 interest.
Vettori’s lawyer John Juhasz asked that the interest be excluded, saying that it was rewarded before a hearing was held by Visiting Probate Judge Thomas Swift.
The visiting judges ruled that they could find no record of any hearing held on the matter of interest and ordered that the issue be remanded back to a trial court for further action.
As to Vettori’s claim that Judge Swift was not impartial, the visiting judges ruled that they could find no evidence to back up that claim and they dismissed it.
The judges who heard the appeal are W. Scott Gwin, Patricia Delaney and Craig R. Baldwin.
Vettori’s husband, former city police officer Ishmael Caraballo, pleaded guilty for his role in the crime and was sentenced to probation.
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Department of Justice
U.S. Attorney’s Office
Northern District of Ohio
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Thursday, June 13, 2019 | Republished by LIT: Fri., 9th Oct., 2020
Former Mahoning County judge sentenced to more than two years in prison for stealing $100,000 from deceased client’s estate
Diane Vettori-Caraballo, 50, of Youngstown, was sentenced to 30 months in prison and ordered to pay $328,000 in restitution.
She pleaded guilty earlier this year to one count of mail fraud, one count of structuring cash deposits, and one count of making false statements to law enforcement.
Vettori-Caraballo stole at least $100,000 in cash that was in the home of a client when that client died in March 2016, according to court documents.
“The fact that the defendant stole at least $100,000 from an elderly person who trusted her to administer their estate is heartbreaking,” US Attorney Justin Herdman said. “The fact that thief in this case was a sitting judge who swore to uphold the law is outrageous.”
“When a public official puts personal gain ahead of a sworn oath of servitude, the very core of how and why our system of government operates is immediately and negatively impacted.
Public officials should be an example to the citizens they serve.
IRS Criminal Investigation, in conjunction with the U.S. Attorney’s Office and the FBI, will continue to give priority to investigations involving the breach of the public trust by government officials,”
stated William Cheung, Acting Special Agent in Charge, IRS Criminal Investigation, Cincinnati Field Office.
Vettori-Caraballo was elected to position of judge in Mahoning County Court #3 – Sebring Court in 2002, with jurisdiction over misdemeanor criminal and traffic charges and other matters in Sebring and Beloit Villages and Berlin, Green, Goshen,, Ellsworth, Smith and Washingtonville Townships. She was reelected in 2006 and 2012, according to court documents.
She also provided estate planning services to Robert Sampson, including drafting his will. On Nov. 20, 2015, Vettori-Caraballo filed an application in Mahoning County Probate Court to administer Sampson’s estate.
The application stated Sampson died without a will. The probate court, unaware of Sampson’s will, appointed Falgiani as the administrator three days later, according to the indictment.
Sampson died in 2015 and his closest living relative was his sister, Dolores Falgiani. Vettori-Caraballo prepared Falgiani will on Nov. 3, 2015.
The will made 16 specific bequests to relatives and friends and bequeathed the rest of the estate to Animal Charity Human Society of Boardman and the Angels for Animal Charity in Canfield, according to court documents.
Sometime in October or November 2015, Falgiani stated she was in possession of several shoeboxes of cash stored at her residence.
Falgiani was found dead in her home on March 10, 2016, according to court documents.
Vettori-Caraballo filed an application in Mahoning County Probate Court to probate Falgiani’s estate on March 24, 2016. On May 2, she reported having found cash in the residence and depositing the $20,000 into the estate, according to court documents.
Vettori-Caraballo filed a notice of newly discovered assets with the court on several subsequent occasions in 2016 and 2017. Each time, she failed to disclose the cash she had stolen, according to court documents.
Vettori-Caraballo also structured deposits of the cash she stole into five different banks within four weeks to avoid regulations that require banks to report cash transactions over $10,000 to the IRS.
In addition, Vettori-Caraballo lied to the FBI when she was confronted about the theft and the structuring of cash deposits, according to court documents.
This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigations. It is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Brian M. McDonough and Alex Abreu.
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