C-O-R-R-U-P-T-I-O-N

First major Cuyahoga County corruption charges filed against J. Kevin Kelley, Kevin Payne, Daniel Gallagher and Brian Schuman

Your tax dollars paid the salaries of Cuyahoga County officials who prosecutors say swapped government contracts for a free gambling junket to Las Vegas. Your tax dollars paid for government leaders to lounge at a secret Flats condo and rake in tens of thousands of dollars in cash and gifts from contractors looking to land county business, according to prosecutors. And that tax levy you passed last year for the poor, elderly and sick? Prosecutors say one of your leaders suggested using some of it to reward a halfway house that flew him first-class to Las Vegas. The first major charges in a three-year county corruption investigation -- filed in U.S. District Court Friday -- paint a portrait of government leaders who saw the public till as a bankroll for personal fun. The behavior of political leaders laid out in the charges is staggering both in its scope and its audacity. The charges represent another step in the investigation that went public and grabbed attention last July, when 175 federal agents raided the Cuyahoga County Administration building, the homes of county Commissioner Jimmy Dimora, Auditor Frank Russo and county employee J. Kevin Kelley and several companies that did business with the county. The charges come while some leaders push a plan to overhaul county government, eliminating some of the offices mentioned in the charges. CONTINUE READING>>>