Retired Judge Maureen Cronin, 59, is to appear in Akron Federal Court Tuesday for her arraignment and guilty plea hearing. She was named last week in a bill of information accusing her of mail fraud for failing to file correct financial disclosure statements with the Ohio Ethics Commission.
Prosecutors said Cronin received an $18,000 loan from an unnamed area business executive but withheld that information, never reporting the loan as required or making a payment plan.The government claimed that at that time, Cronin had heard dozens of lawsuits involving companies connected to the unnamed executive, and continued to hear new cases as well.
Authorities said that same executive was also behind a loan made to former Trumbull County Commissioner Jim Tsagaris who was sentenced Thursday for violating terms of his sentence for mail fraud.
The bill of information said Cronin received the loan "in the form of cash in the backseat of the senior executive's car." Cronin was charged with two counts of honest services mail fraud.
Cronin was Mahoning County's first female judge, winning reelection twice without opposition. She served 13 years before retiring in the summer of 2007, near the beginning of her third term. Twice while judge, Cronin faced DUI charges, pleading no contest the first time and guilty the second.
