Marvin Fong, The Plain DealerFormer Cuyahoga County Commissioner Jimmy Dimora is on trial in Akron on federal racketeering charges.
AKRON, Ohio -- A retired Cuyahoga County employee took the stand late this afternoon in the Jimmy Dimora federal racketeering trial, telling a jury that the hiring of employees in the engineer's office, especially interns, was done for political purposes.
Patricia Gouker retired Dec. 31, 2009, after more than 32 years with the county. About 29 years were spent at the county engineer's office, where she rose from typist to director of human resources for that office.
She said this afternoon that "many of the students were political hires," but that a woman named Dana Rybak was selected for an internship in the sanitary engineer's office in 2008 "because we knew her parents."
was business manager and financial secretary for Journeymen Plumbers Local 55. He was sentenced to 27 months in federal prison on Jan. 20, 2011. He had pleaded guilty to stealing from the union and tampering with a witness. Dana Rybak's mother, Linda, was also a county employee.
-- two men who prosecutors say played a key role in several criminal schemes in which Dimora is implicated. Gouker was questioned by Assistant U.S. Attorney Nancy Kelley.
"I believe they went to a lot of dinners together, they played cards together," Goucker said of Kelley and Dimora. She said they went to Las Vegas together.
Dimora to Las Vegas in 2008.
enjoyed by Dimora and others in exchange for political favors, prosecutors said.