Strollo to leave prison in 2008 His testimony put end to Valley mob

Print Story

Email to Friend

Discuss this story

The family has something to look forward to, his wife says.

YOUNGSTOWN — It's been 10 years since FBI agents arrested Lenny Strollo at his Canfield home and federal prosecutors began to dismantle a racketeering enterprise.

"It's been a long 10 years, but I have found real peace in my life," his wife, Antoinette "Toni" Strollo, told The Vindicator. "I'm fine; he's fine."

The once-powerful organized crime figure was indicted Dec. 10, 1997, on Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations violations of aggravated murder (of rival Ernie Biondillo Jr. in June 1996), casino-style gambling and numbers lottery.

The indictment listed 29 co-defendants. One died and the rest either pleaded guilty or were found guilty.

Strollo was taken into custody Dec. 11, 1997, and has remained in protective custody since then, with his whereabouts kept secret. He was sentenced to 12 years and eight months in prison in January 2004.

Toni Strollo said family is important to her husband, who knows he's "gone but not forgotten." She said she wants to concentrate on the positive, not the negative.

Once out of prison, Strollo, who turns 76 in April, will be on three years' supervised release and must do 250 hours of community service. He was given credit for time served, and with good time, could be out in late 2008.

"The positive part is coming up; he paid his price," Toni Strollo said of her husband's release from prison. "It's been a long time coming and we're glad it's almost over. His family, we all want him back. We have something to look forward to."

It's not known where he'll go once he's released.

Strollo reached a plea agreement and became a government witness in February 1999. Afterward, he participated in countless interviews with FBI agents and federal prosecutors and testified at trials when needed.

U.S. District Judge Kathleen M. O'Malley delayed sentencing until 2004 so that Strollo could fulfill his cooperation agreement. His federal prison time includes safety considerations to protect him from those he testified against and runs concurrent with two concurrent 10-year state prison terms.

The state sentence was handed down in November 1999 on charges that nearly mirrored the federal racketeering case. The state charges included the attempted murder of Mahoning County Prosecutor Paul J. Gains on Dec. 24, 1996, when he was prosecutor-elect.

When sentenced in federal court, Strollo, his voice faltering, offered apologies to anyone he'd hurt intentionally or unintentionally. He said the expression that fit his situation is "too soon old, too late smart" and there was nothing more he could say than "I'm sorry."

Craig S. Morford, lead federal prosecutor on the case, in explaining the extent of Strollo's cooperation to Judge O'Malley, said whatever information he provided was "like money in the bank."

The government, Morford said in court, could have gone to trial and put Strollo in prison but the same corrupt system would still exist. The government needed to go "high, broad, wide and deep" to break the criminal enterprise, he said.

Morford said Mahoning County, when the organized crime investigation began in 1994, was corrupt, violent and out of control. He said it had been that way for more than 50 years, with more than 50 mob-related murders, long before Strollo.

Strollo provided information about a number of unsolved homicides and about La Cosa Nostra activities in Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Detroit and New York. He also provided information that led to the convictions of former U.S. Rep. James A. Traficant Jr., ex-Mahoning County Judge Martin W. Emrich, ex-Youngstown Municipal Judge Andrew Polovischak Jr., three men involved in the Biondillo hit, ex-Mahoning County Sheriff Phil Chance, ex-Mahoning County Prosecutor James A. Philomena and others, according to Vindicator files.

Sunday, December 9, 2007