A former Elyria attorney pleaded guilty Tuesday to a federal conspiracy charge that he and his former law partners bribed a public official whose description in court documents matches that of Cuyahoga County Auditor Frank Russo.

Timothy Armstrong’s plea agreement will send him to prison for 37 to 46 months under federal sentencing guidelines, said First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Edwards.

Armstrong, 65, was indicted earlier this month along with Santina “Sandy” Klimkowski, a top Russo aide in the auditor’s office, and Bruce Zaccagnini, one of his former partners in Armstrong, Mitchell, Damiani and Zaccagnini.

Klimkowski and Zaccagnini are expected to plead guilty later this week.

According to Armstrong’s plea agreement, he and his law partners funneled about $1.3 million worth of bribes to the public official matching Russo’s description and to Klimkowski, who would collect the bribes for her boss.

At the time, the law firm was closely tied to a property appraisal company that isn’t named in court documents but is widely believed to be VAS Enterprises, which handled property appraisals for Russo’s office beginning in 1998.

The law firm had effective control over VAS’s books and finances and made nearly
$9 million from its dealings with the company, which had contracts with Russo’s office between 1998 and 2008 worth nearly $21.5 million, according to court documents.

Armstrong’s attorney, John Pyle, said his client made a mistake when he agreed with his now-deceased law partner, Louis Damiani, to bribe Russo to make sure the appraisal contract went to VAS.

“In order to get the contract they had to ‘take care of Frank,’ ” Pyle said.

Armstrong has agreed to testify for the government whenever he’s needed as a witness in the investigation, Pyle said.

Armstrong, who has represented numerous school districts in Lorain County and has done work for Lorain County Auditor Mark Stewart, also worked on the appraisals performed by VAS in Cuyahoga County, but Pyle said all the work done by the company was above board.

“The appraisals were done accurately,” he said. “Nobody got special treatment.”

Pyle said the deal with Russo was reached by Damiani, whose death in 2006 prompted the closing of the law firm. Damiani told his partners, often via Post-it note, how much they owed for the bribes he would then deliver to Klimkowski at dinner meetings. Klimkowski would turn the bribes over to Russo, according to court documents.

After 2001, court documents said, the dinner meetings ceased and Damiani just handed over the bribes to Klimkowski, who also is accused of lying to investigators about bribes she also received beginning in 2005. Initially, she received $3,000 bribes, but those later increased to $4,000.

After Damiani’s death, Zaccagnici and an unnamed relative of Damiani’s formed a new law firm, Belcuy Partners, and he took over making the bribe payments to Russo, according to court documents. Belcuy Partners allegedly made about $3.7 million off the VAS deal.

Armstrong agreed to repay $1.5 million he made from his corrupt dealings, Edwards said. He is scheduled to pay $800,000 by the end of the year and will make additional payments on the remaining money in 2010 and 2011, Edwards said.

Edwards would not confirm that the public official described in court documents was Russo. He also declined to comment on the rest of the investigation, which also appears to have targeted Cuyahoga County Commissioner Jimmy Dimora, whose description matches that of another unnamed public official discussed in court documents.

Neither Dimora nor Russo has been charged, and both have denied wrongdoing.

Armstrong, who recently closed his Elyria office and moved to Huron, isn’t the only figure in the probe with ties to Lorain County.

Sandy Prudoff retired as director of the Lorain Community Development Department shortly after he was suspended earlier this month when city officials learned he was a target in the corruption probe.

The city is compiling documents to comply with an FBI subpoena that seeks information on community development projects, Prudoff and Alternatives Agency Inc., a Cleveland halfway house tied into the investigation.

Prudoff did work as a consultant for Alternatives, scouting locations for a facility the agency was considering opening in the Lorain area.

Edwards declined to comment on Prudoff.

Contact Brad Dicken at 329-7147 or bdicken@chroniclet.com.