BY CATHY JETT
AKRON, OHIO
--A federal judge set bond for retired mall magnate John "J.J." Cafaro at $50,000 during his detention hearing yesterday.The 58-year-old developer, who was instrumental in bringing Spotsylvania Mall to Fredericksburg in 1980 and in its recent renovation as Spotsylvania Towne Centre, also was ordered to submit to and pay for electronic monitoring. He cannot leave northern Ohio without court permission.
Cafaro stepped down as vice president of Youngstown, Ohio-based Cafaro Co. in December. On Wednesday, he pleaded guilty to causing a member of his daughter's campaign staff to file a false quarterly report with the Federal Election Commission.
The report stated that Cafaro had contributed only $2,000 to Capri Cafaro's failed bid for a seat in Congress in 2004. He had actually loaned the campaign $10,000, which is $8,000 more than the maximum individual contribution allowed by law to federal candidates.
Both Cafaro and his daughter, a Democrat serving as minority leader of the Ohio State Senate, have said that she was unaware of the cover-up. She is not being charged in the case.
U.S. District Judge John R. Adams ordered Cafaro jailed without bond for not giving the court the personal financial information needed to set bond.
"I've been here seven years. I can't remember one instance where the defendant didn't give the basic information to determine bond," said Adams according to an article on vindy.com, the Web site of the Youngstown newspaper The Vindicator.
The judge sent Cafaro to jail over the weekend, and on Friday denied a request by Cafaro's lawyer to move the detention hearing back so Cafaro could post bond and be released until the detention hearing.
Yesterday, Cafaro appeared in the courtroom handcuffed, shackled and wearing orange prison garb, according to WKBN.com, an AM news-format radio station in Youngstown. He is scheduled for sentencing June 8, and could receive probation or up to five years in prison
This is not Cafaro's first experience with a criminal proceeding. In 2002, he pleaded guilty to a conspiracy charge related to giving a bribe of $13,000 in cash and other things of value to U.S. Rep. James A. Traficant, then an Ohio congressman.
Cafaro admitted that he'd bribed Traficant for his assistance in getting the Federal Aviation Administration to purchase laser-guidance technology from his USAerospace Group company, a company Capri Cafaro had listed as her employer on several campaign contribution forms.
The developer was sentenced to 15 months probation, and Traficant spent more than seven years in the penitentiary.
Cafaro and his brother, Cafaro Co. President Anthony M. Cafaro, retired at the end of 2009, and placed the company in the hands of Anthony Cafaro's sons, William A. and Anthony Cafaro Jr., as co-presidents.
Cathy Jett: 540/374-5407
Email: cjett@freelancestar.com