So the dominoes begin to fall. This morning the Plain Dealer alerts us to the recent indictment of Vince Russo, the 31-year-old son of Cuyahoga County Auditor Frank Russo. His crime? Trying to grease the wheels with a pair of TVs.
As just about everybody knows by now, the Feds have been gunning hard for the elder Russo and pal Jimmy Dimora as part of an expansive public corruption probe. Neither have been charged yet. In the summer of 2008, Federal officials conducted a massive raid on Russo and Dimmora’s homes and workplaces; as part of that peak under the rug, the cops popped in at Vince Russo’s VinCore, a consulting firm. The current corruption charges stem from Russo the Younger’s alleged shady dealings with the Maple Heights City Schools.
According to PD reporter Peter Krouse:
The indictment charges Russo with delivering two televisions to the home of former Maple Heights school board member Santina "Sandy" Klimkowski in 2007 and telling her to give one of them to Christopher Krause, then-treasurer of Maple Heights schools. The sets were bribes in return for contracts awarded by the school district to one of Russo's clients, according to prosecutors.Shortly after the July 2008 raids, Vince Russo told Klimkowski to "get rid" of the television he had given her and to tell Krause to do the same, prosecutors said.
