Monteleone found guilty
Joe Medici | The Chronicle-Telegram
Judge says felonies won’t boot him from Elyria Council
ELYRIA — Councilman Joseph Monteleone Jr. was found guilty Friday of asking underage girls to have sex and fondling them.
Monteleone, who owns Master Pizza, where the incidents took place, was convicted of two felony counts of importuning and three misdemeanor counts of sexual imposition. He was found not guilty on another misdemeanor count.
The charges involve three teenage girls who worked for him at the pizza shop. He could get up to two years in prison when he is sentenced.
County Common Pleas Judge James Burge, who found Monteleone guilty Friday, said the felony counts were “non-removable offenses,” which means Monteleone can remain on Council.
His term expires at year’s end, and he didn’t seek re-election. But several of Monteleone’s fellow Council members said they think that he should resign.
“My personal feeling is that he should step down because someone else can’t run for council if they have a felony on their record,” said Forrest Bullocks, D-2nd Ward. “The correct thing I feel would be for him to step down and let the Republican Party appoint someone. So far as citizens looking at having a felon on Council, it might not look good in their eye.”
Councilman Thomas Callahan, D-at large, agreed.
“I would have to say that he should step down,” Callahan said.
Elyria Law Director Terry “Pete” Shilling said the city has an ordinance that would allow the Council to remove Monteleone as a result of the convictions. But Shilling said he wasn’t familiar with the specifics of it Friday since he cannot recall it ever having been used.
The three-day bench trial wrapped up Friday afternoon after Monteleone, R-1st Ward, took the stand to defend himself against charges previous witnesses made, accusing him of sexual harassment with a fondness for underage girls.
Monteleone admitted saying “Wanna (expletive)?” to an adult employee, but said he never said anything like it to any of the minors in his shop.
“I noticed she was down and I said, ‘Wanna (expletive),’ to try to get her to laugh as a joke,” Monteleone testified.
Assistant County Prosecutor Sherry Glass, however, challenged his assertion that what he said to one employee, he wouldn’t say to another.
“So you admit that you made the comment to one of the girls, the one you can’t get in trouble for, but you didn’t say anything like that to the underage girls, where you could get in trouble?” Glass asked during her cross-examination.
“Don’t question my character,” Monteleone shot back.
The councilman denied ever slapping any of his employees on the buttocks but admitted to accidentally hitting one of the girls with his shoe.
“As I walked by, I kicked up my foot and the side of my shoe brushed against her butt,” Monteleone said.
Burge said he found the witnesses and their testimony to be credible.
Monteleone testified that he had pinched a female employee on the buttocks with a pair of kitchen tongs after she pinched him first. The incident was part of a joke, he said.
Burge acquitted Monteleone of the charge stemming from the incident — saying there was no sign of sexual intent.
After the verdict was announced, neither Monteleone nor his lawyer, Mike Doyle, would comment.
Contact Joe Medici at 329-7152 or jmedici@chroniclet.com.
Click here to view video testimony of Monteleone’s trial.
BRUCE
BISHOP / CHRONICLE
Monteleone testifying in court.
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