April 30, 2000

By BRENDA J. LINERT
Warren Tribune Chronicle

YOUNGSTOWN ­­ Shortly after saying he expects to be indicted, U.S. Rep. James A. Traficant Jr. began resurrecting long-forgotten allegations that a former Youngstown police chief was corrupt. But two deputies who worked under Traficant when he was sheriff have different recollections of how Traficant pursued those allegations.

Mahoning County Sheriff's detective William B. Pearch, who worked under Traficant from 1981 to 1984, said he knows of no investigation at that time into allegations against former Youngstown police Chief Stanley Peterson. Meanwhile, another former sheriff's deputy under Traficant during that same time, William J. Kuzniak, recalled operating a sting and turning over information about alleged Youngstown police corruption to Traficant in the early 1980s.

Allegations that Peterson and other police had ties to organized crime came to light in a 1981 federal affidavit and were revisited by Traficant during his 1983 criminal trial. Traficant was charged with taking $163,000 in mob bribes while he was campaigning for sheriff.

Traficant focused on allegations that other officials were corrupt as a defense tactic when he successfully defended himself in 1983. Traficant specifically questioned witnesses about Peterson, a former Youngstown FBI agent.

Traficant, D-Poland, is now the focus of a new federal investigation, this time apparently dealing with his congressional duties. The FBI seized records from his congressional offices in January and has been questioning some of his associates.

Facing a new FBI probe, Traficant is accusing federal agents of overlooking the allegations of corruption. In past weeks, Traficant has filed numerous requests for public information dealing with Peterson's time at the FBI and any federal investigations surrounding him.

In a recent letter to the Cleveland FBI, Traficant said: "If Stanley Peterson was compromised by organized crime during his tenure in the FBI's Youngstown office and the Youngstown Police Department, then the FBI shoulders much of the blame for Youngstown becoming a political whorehouse."

In the past two years the FBI has brought charges against 72 people in an ongoing local public corruption probe.

Through his spokesman Paul Marcone, Traficant has declined interview requests from the Tribune Chronicle. Marcone, however, said he didn't know why Traficant, when he was sheriff, didn't pursue Peterson.

"Traficant got the reports, naturally, of everything," Kuzniak said in a Mahoning County restaurant last week. "Your guess is as good as mine where it went from there. I brought the information. I don't know what happened from there."

Kuzniak testified during Traficant's 1983 trial that he had spoken to him about Peterson and operating a sting against corruption in the Youngstown police department, although Mahoning County Court records show Peterson was never charged with any crime.

Pearch said he knew nothing of any type of a local sting operation against Peterson despite the 1983 trial testimony.

During Traficant's first trial, in which he acted as his own lawyer, he questioned Kuzniak about a conversation on Peterson that took place at a 1980 political fund-raiser.

Under oath, Kuzniak testified that he had discussed with Traficant corruption among the ranks at the Youngstown police department's strike force and other political figures.

Traficant asked: "At the time of the topic of the discussion on October 1980, who had control over the Youngstown Police Department Strike Force?"

Kuzniak replied, "Stanley Peterson."

In past weeks, Peterson has refused three requests for interviews on the matter.

Last week, Kuzniak paged through copies of case files he kept from his 1980s undercover investigations. One specific file in which Eldridge Hymes Jr. of Youngstown was charged and later convicted of drug trafficking contained 1982 statements in which Hymes told Kuzniak that he was paying Youngstown police department's vice squad for "protection" in order to operate.

Kuzniak said he turned that information over to Traficant.

Pearch, however, said that if there had been an investigation into Peterson, he would have known.

"As a detective, I would have probably heard something about it if there was an official on-going investigation. Those matters are discussed back and forth. You have got to crisscross (in criminal investigations)," Pearch said.

Pearch said he recently was interviewed by FBI agents apparently working on a new probe into Traficant. Although they were not asking about Peterson, he said the FBI was looking for information about things like contractors and individuals who did work on Traficant's Green Township farm and the houseboat Traficant keeps docked in Washington, D.C.

After leaving the sheriff's department, Pearch went on to work in Traficant's local congressional office until retiring in 1992. He said he hasn't spoken to the congressman since 1998.

Kuzniak, who grew up a few houses away from Traficant, said he ran into Traficant a few weeks ago, but generally doesn't keep in touch with him. He said he also had been offered a job in Traficant's congressional office, but couldn't take it because he was on disability after being injured while working for the sheriff's department.

Kuzniak is not without his own problems and became notorious following the 1983 trial testimony when he and his brother, Robert -­ also a Mahoning County sheriff's deputy -­ were served with a combined 52-count indictment on Aug. 24, 1984.

The brothers were accused of abducting, menacing and assaulting numerous bar patrons during a four-hour armed siege at Mr. C's bar in New Middletown on April 16, 1984. During the seige, William Kuzniak was acknowledged badly beaten. It was that incident that put Kuzniak on disability.

During a 1986 trial prosecuted by then-special prosecutor James Philomena, a jury acquitted the brothers on numerous charges and were unable to reach a verdict on remaining charges, according to Mahoning County court records.

The brothers were subsequently cleared of the remaining charges.

Like Traficant's recent questions, Kuzniak said he wants to know why the federal agents didn't do anything about the allegations that came out in federal court.

"The law reads that prior testimony is admissable in a court of law. Now, if the feds wanted to know anything about this, why didn't they subpoena me to a grand jury in Cleveland? They had their opportunities. They had the transcripts," Kuzniak said.

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