YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio - Visiting Judge William H. Wolff, Jr. dismisses all 73 criminal charges against all defendants in the Oakhill criminal conspiracy case.

The dismissal comes nearly one year after a Mahoning County Grand Jury handed down the conspiracy charges against five people and three companies including retired millionaire mall developer Anthony Cafaro, Sr., Mahoning County Commissioner John McNally, Auditor Michael Sciortino and former Treasurer John Reardon.

Special Prosecutor David Muhek asked for the dismissal at around 9:15 a.m. Monday morning.

The Judge granted it without prejudice, meaning the case could be refiled.  The charges allege that Anthony Cafaro, Sr. conspired with several of Mahoning County's elected officials to block the county's purchase of the Oakhill building, allegedly trying to prevent the relocation of the Department of Jobs and Family Services from the Cafaro-owned Garland Plaza to the county-owned former hospital facility named Oakhill Renaissance Place.

Prosecutor Muhek says he had to ask for the dismissal because the prosecution was unable to obtain two-thousand hours of tape recordings from the FBI, making it impossible to provide them to the defense attorneys as required by law under the rules of evidence.  The FBI will neither confirm or deny the existence of the tapes and if the people recorded on the tapes include all or some of the defendants in the Oakhill case.

Martin Weinberg an Attorney for Anthony Cafaro, Sr. says, "If the FBI had even one tape that supported this prosecution then the state prosecutors would have it and use it.  And it is far, far more plausible that if there are any tapes of Tony Cafaro, then those tapes fully exonerate him from the charges that Judge Wolff dismissed today."

Anthony Cafaro, Sr. told reporters, "I'm very happy, I'm very pleased that Judge Wolff has decided to dismiss each of the counts against me and against each of the other defendants. From the very beginning this case has been a politically motivated prosecution, and it has been a waste of taxpayer dollars, what a shame. I want to thank all of those who have stood behind me and stood behind our family during this needless, but difficult ordeal."

Auditor Michael Sciortino standing by his Attorney John Juhasz said this has been a challenging time but he is extremely gratified that the charges have been dismissed.  He also wanted to thank the commujnity that has shown tremendous support to his family.

Mahoning County Commissioner John McNally says, "In this case you had three elected officials who voiced their opposition largely due to the lack of planning and purchase of that Oakhill building."  McNally said his decision was based solely on what was best for taxpayers.

Former Treasurer John Reardon told reporters, "I believed in 2006 that the Oakhill purchase was a very bad idea, to buy a 100 year old hospital without any due diligence and I think that time has shown the position we took on behalf of taxpayers, that position has proven to be the right one."

Defense Attorneys contend the Oakhill prosecution was flawed from the beginning and there's speculation that the real reason the Prosecution asked for a dismissal of the case is so that Mahoning County Prosecutor Paul Gains and his Chief Assistant Prosecutor Linette Stratford would not have to take the witness stand on Monday and be questioned about alleged prosecutorial misconduct in this case.

Prosecutor Gains supports his chief assistant and says, "Anything that she did, she (Stratford) acted under the direction of the Ohio Ethics Commission and the Special Prosecutors."  Gains said that while he recused himself and his office due to a conflict of interest, Stratford and his office had knowledge of this case that nobody else did."

As for questions on whether there is a parallel federal investigation, Cafaro Attorney George Stamboulidis says, "This case is over.  These charges were investigated by the FBI, the FBI was in the courtroom.  There's a good possibility the Justice System passed on this pathetic case, but it found a home in Paul Gains and so you shouldn't expect to see these charges in federal court or anywhere.  This case is over."

Special Prosecutor Paul Nick, who is now also the Executive Director of the Ohio Ethics Commission in Columbus vehemently denies the allegations of prosecutorial misconduct, saying the only reason they asked for a dismissal was because they could not comply with their duty to disclose information.

The Vindicator and WFMJ's lawsuit to unseal alleged evidence and the bill of particulars in this case is still pending before the Ohio Supreme Court and only the Supreme Court or Judge Wolff can unseal those documents.