MUNICH — A German court said today it has ruled that John Demjanjuk can be tried on charges of being an accessory to the murder of thousands at a Nazi death camp, and that the trial likely will start in early November.

Demjanjuk

The Munich state court said it accepted prosecutors’ indictment against the 89-year-old on Thursday, a necessary step in German legal proceedings, and ordered that Demjanjuk remain in custody.

Exact trial dates have not yet been set but proceedings likely will start “at the beginning of November,” the court said in a statement.

Demjanjuk was charged in July with being an accessory to the murder of 27,900 people at the Sobibor death camp in Nazi-occupied Poland where prosecutors allege he served as a guard.

The charges were filed after doctors determined that Demjanjuk was fit to stand trial as long as court hearings do not exceed two 90-minute sessions per day.

They carry a possible maximum sentence of 15 years in prison.

The retired Cleveland area autoworker maintains he was a Red Army soldier who was held as a prisoner of war and never hurt anyone.

Demjanjuk arrived in Munich in May after losing a lengthy court battle to avoid deportation from the U.S.

Among the documents obtained by Munich prosecutors is an SS identity card that features a photo of a young, round-faced Demjanjuk along with his height and weight, and that says he worked at Sobibor.

West

INDEPENDENCE — Cavaliers guard Delonte West remained absent from practice Wednesday at Cleveland Clinic Courts, the team continuing to say he’s dealing with a “personal matter.”

West, who faces a Nov. 20 court date in Maryland on weapons charges, has not been given permission by the team to skip workout and is being fined for each session he misses.

The 26-year-old missed two practices on Tuesday and a morning workout Wednesday, with the Cavaliers scheduled to practice again Wednesday evening. It is not known if West will attend.

“We’ve been around this block with Delonte before,” superstar LeBron James said. “We know how to handle it.”

West missed almost two weeks of training camp last year, with the team’s permission, while receiving treatment for bipolar disorder.

Two weeks ago, he was pulled over in Maryland after cutting in front of a police officer. West was found to be carrying two loaded handguns and a shotgun, which was in a guitar case strapped over his shoulder while he was riding a three-wheeled motorcycle.

West showed up Monday for the team’s annual Media Day and said he felt great and was ready to focus on basketball, but hasn’t talked to his teammates since.

“I don’t think Delonte will ever be a distraction to us,” point guard Mo Williams said. “We as a team and organization fully understand the situation.”

Added James: “We’re going to give him a little bit of room and let him clear his mind. When he gets back, we’ll reach out to him.”

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.

ELYRIA — City leaders resumed talks of altering longevity pay for city employees Monday night and ended up in nearly the same place as when the idea was first broached in April.

The practice of paying city employees 1 percent of their base salary for every year they work up 20 years started decades ago, and doing away with it will not be easy — even if that is what voters say they want to see before they will pass an income tax increase. Several factors can’t be overlooked in the city’s quest to rid itself of the benefit that costs about $3 million annually across all funds.

The collective bargaining agreement the city has with more than half a dozen unions is the biggest, said Mayor Bill Grace. In addition, the city actually saves money with the current longevity pay model, he said.

“We get away with paying our employees less in the beginning because mediators and arbitrators factor in 20 percent longevity when looking at salaries,” he said. “Really, it works in our favor. When you speak directly to longevity, it’s a bargain for our community. It allows us to pay our employees less in the beginning.”

A look at comparable cities, provided in a spreadsheet to council members during the Finance Committee meeting, showed that police and fire employees, for example, are near the middle of the pack in terms of compensation, Grace said. However, “it takes 20 years for our Police Department to get to those levels when it takes other departments three or four years to reach the same point,” he said.

If the city eliminated the current longevity pay model for union employees, it would have to increase base salaries 10 percent to 14 percent, Grace said.

“While it does even out or maybe even save a little money in the end of careers, it will mean we are paying more to employees in the beginning,” he said. “An arbitrator will never take this away from them unless we buy them out at 14 percent or more.”

Nonetheless, the city has to be willing to deal with the unions, said Councilman Larry Tanner, D-1st Ward.

“If you wanted to stop longevity, you could and you would just have to get that agreement with the unions,” he said. “Everyone at General Motors or Ford can tell you things have changed. I’ve dealt with arbitrators. You just have to be strong enough to go after them.”

But with state and federal employment laws in place, Grace said just telling the unions longevity pay is changing is not as simple as some would believe.

“You would think the argument ‘we don’t have enough money’ is a good argument, but not in the state of Ohio,” he said.

Councilman Garry Gibbs, R-3rd Ward, still suggested the city take steps toward altering the longevity pay for nonunion employees as the city is not held to a contract with those employees. Current full-time nonunion employees would see their longevity frozen and new nonunion hires would go on a different longevity schedule, under Gibbs’ recommendation.

“Sure, you are not going to see an impact tomorrow, but at least we can finally get our hands around it,” he said.

Gibbs questions if longevity pay — long said to be the benefit that keeps city employees from seeking employment elsewhere — is doing what it’s supposed to do. However, a number of Elyria police officers are currently looking for employment in other police departments, he said.

“I think that stands to reason there are other things at play when it comes to why they are leaving,” he said.

Law Director Terry “Pete” Shilling has been pegged with the responsibility of researching the legalities of Gibbs’ recommendation and crafting council legislation pertaining to the changes. He will present his findings at the first Finance Committee meeting in November when city leaders will discuss the idea of changing longevity.

“Those who think it is easy to do away with it with a wave of a magic wand are wrong,” he said. “It’s been around a long time and it’s complicated.”

Still, Gibbs said the city will be in a more complicated position with voters if they don’t do something to the current model, which also has the lack of employee evaluation attached to the benefit.

“Where the public has a problem — as do I — is it is not contingent on performance,” he said. “We are giving 1 percent just for coming back every 12 months and 20 percent for 20 years. But there is nothing to say that experience is the best experience.”

Contact Lisa Roberson at 329-7121 or lroberson@chroniclet.com.