CLEVELAND – Former Cuyahoga County Commissioner Jimmy Dimora is back at the Cuyahoga County jail, sources at the jail confirm.
Dimora was sentenced to 28 years in prison after a jury returned guilty verdicts against him on 29 of 30 criminal counts in March 2012. He was incarcerated at Federal Correctional Institution (FCI) Gilmer in Glenville, West Virginia.
A new mugshot of the ex-county official was taken at the jail on Wednesday. Federal Bureau of Prisons lists Dimora in transit on Thursday afternoon.
Sources told NewsChannel5 that Dimora was brought back to Cleveland to testify in front of a grand jury involving allegations of fraud when the county purchased the AmeriTrust building for $28 million.
Last month, Cleveland attorney Anthony O. Calabrese III was indicted on allegations that he bribed Dimora in return for brokering the sale of the AmeriTrust building. During Dimora’s federal corruption trial, Calalbrese was mentioned as arranging Dimora’s plane tickets for a Las Vegas junket.
Legal sources say Dimora has two options. He can either testify before the grand jury or invoke his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. If he refused to testify, he could be changed with contempt charges and face even more time in prison.
In 2007, the FBI launched one of the largest probes ever in public corruption in local government. The Cuyahoga County probe has resulted in more than 50 arrests of area politicians, judges and business people.
“I’m not an angel, but I’m not a crook. I have not done anything that any other public official hasn’t done,” Dimora said in 2009 during one of his many proclamations of innocence.
