County corruption wiretaps connect Jimmy Dimora to Flats condo sex rendezvous, poker party

County corruption wiretaps connect Jimmy Dimora to Flats condo sex rendezvous, poker party

By: Ken Trump, newsnet5.com
AKRON, Ohio - Federal prosecutors on Tuesday morning played a series of wiretap cell phone calls linking former county commissioner Jimmy Dimora to a condo in the Flats which they said Dimora used for sexual rendezvous and poker parties.

The wiretaps concentrated on a series of 2008 calls among Dimora, his intermediary J. Kevin Kelley, and Kevin Payne, the now-deceased former chief of staff for the Cuyahoga County engineer’s office. Multiple calls involved Kelley and Payne coordinating the identification of a specific condo Dimora could use to meet with a female Dimora later described as “just some old friend.”

Dimora eventually settled on a condo unit being used as a model, instead of a presidential suite at the Embassy Suites at Reserve Square in downtown Cleveland.

“He’s not going to want to go to a hotel. I know that,” Kelley told Payne.

Dimora later proved Kelley to be right, saying he would prefer the condo model over Embassy Suites, in part, because a local news station is housed in the same Reserve Square complex and he feared accidentally running into someone from that station.

The Flats condos of interest were in the Stonebridge complex. Both Stonebridge and Reserve Square are owned by developer K&D Group, the developer linked on Monday afternoon to hiring Daniel Gallagher for his perceived “influence with county commissioners."

Assistant U.S. Attorney Antoinette Bacon walked FBI Special Agent Michael Massie through a series of wiretap recordings, transcripts, and surveillance photos linking Dimora, Russo, Kelley, Payne and others to condo unit 808 at The Plaza at Stonebridge, which they used for a poker party.

In one wiretap, Dimora made a reference to having a specific woman brought to the party.

“Get the one with the thing in her tongue,” Dimora told Kelley, referring to a woman with a pierced tongue.

Condo unit 808 was identified by Massie as a two-bedroom and two-bath 1,186 square foot condo with a skyline and river view valued at $279,900.

In another wiretap with Kelley, Dimora said he needed to keep a key to a Flats condo.

“I’ve gotta have it for an emergency. In case a terrorist attacks, it’s my county emergency management location,” Dimora joked.

Massie also identified a number of limousine records linking Payne and a woman Massie identified as Rebecca.

Bacon asked Massie if during his investigation he identified Rebecca.

“Rebecca was a female escort hired by Kevin Payne to provide services to Jimmy Dimora,” Massie testified. He later identified her as Rebecca Johnson and said she advertised in Scene Magazine.

Payne worked not only as a county employee, but also was an attorney in private practice. Federal officials said one of his clients was A Touch of Class, a limo service company they said Payne bartered services with to build up credits for limo services in addition to charging up thousands of dollars in rides for Dimora and his family.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Antoinette Bacon walked Massie through numerous records seized by the FBI from the limo service in their search to locate records involving casinos, Stonebridge, Rebecca Johnson, another female named Allyson, and Dimora.

In addition to a 2003 gambling junket to Casino Windsor in Canada, federal officials entered into evidence records and testimony showing gambling trips including two trips to casinos in Niagara Falls and New Orleans. Photos seized from a FBI raid at Russo’s house showed Dimora, Kelley, Russo, Russo’s housemate Michael Calabrese, and others posing for pictures in front of a fountain at what Massie identified as the Niagra Fallsview Casino in Canada.

Johnson and another woman Massie identified as Allyson Peterson, a now-deceased escort who lived for a time in Florida and had been picked up and dropped off at Hopkins, were frequently referenced in limo company records that linked the two women to Payne.

Using the records, Massie also identified Tanya Calhoun as the black female referred to as “Egypt” who was picked up in Toledo by Payne and former county employee Kevin Gallagher on the way to Casino Windsor in 2003. According to Gallagher’s Monday afternoon testimony, Dimora left a Casino Windsor gaming table with Egypt shortly after he was introduced to her.

Federal prosecutors and Massie reviewed document after document detailing thousands of dollars worth of limo trips for Dimora and his family over a multi-year period.

Prosecutors began attempting to link Dimora's limo rides and condo favors as things of value offered by Payne in exchange for Dimora's influence on getting a salary increase for Payne's boss at the time, county engineer Robert Klaiber. A wiretap conversation revealed Payne wanted Klaiber's county controlled salary rate increased from $50,500 to $59,500 in one increase and not spread out over four years.

"I want to make this happen for Bob. Hit him hard now and get the cost of living," Payne told Kelley.

Massie testified it was around this time that newspaper reporters were making inquiries about

salaries in county offices. Payne and Kelley, whose salaries were each greater than that of Klaiber, wanted Klaiber's county controlled salary increased so the disparity between his salary and their salaries was not as noticeable, Massie said.

Payne and others also wanted Dimora to support leaving the county engineer's offices at the Stonebridge property where the county had a multi-million dollar lease with Stonebridge's owner, the K&D Group developer. They did not want the offices moved to another location.

Prosecutors planned to continue on this aspect of their case after a lunch break.

The wiretaps played Tuesday morning included one of the few conversations in which jurors have heard Dimora’s co-defendant Michael Gabor. Gabor was identified in a call talking with Dimora about Rebecca and other women.

Earlier in the morning as he arrived at court, Gabor's defense attorney Leif Christman was asked about his pattern of brief cross-examination questions of prosecution witnesses who have repeatedly distanced Gabor from dinners, meetings and other schemes highlighted so far by prosecutors.

“You can’t be part of a conspiracy if you don't know about it,” Christman responded.

Dimora and Gabor have maintained their innocence of all federal charges.

Continue to follow newsnet5.com and NewsChannel5 for ongoing trial developments.



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