A former president of the Mahoning County Bar Association, another lawyer and a Boardman businessman have been indicted by the United States government on charges they tried to extort money from a local marihuana cultivator.
      Former bar president Scott Cochran, 43, of 6830 Fairview Rd., Austintown, his law partner, Neal Atway, 47, of 5800 Cherrywood Ct., Boardman and businessman Mohdammed Rawhneh, 54, of 7538 Huntington Dr., were arraigned last week.
      It is alleged they conspired to extort Charles Muth, 44, of Canfield, who is currently serving a 23 month jail term after a conviction on a federal marihuana cultivation charge, and a conviction on charges of ethnic intimidation and aggravated menacing. Muth operated the Cornersburg Party Shop, 3727 Tippecanoe Rd.
      According to an indictment filed in the U.S. District Court, Northern District of Ohio, Eastern Division, the six-count indictment was filed charging Cochran, Atway and Rawhneh with Hobbs Act conspiracy, conspiracy to obstruct justice, making false statements and related charges, said Steven M. Dettelbach, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio, and Stephen D. Anthony, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Cleveland Office.
      Cochran is a former president of the Mahoning County Bar Association, and currently serves as a trustee.
      On Christmas Day, 2011, Rawhneh filed a police report with the Boardman Police Department saying he had received several threatening phone calls.
      Rawhneh said he received three calls, including threats to kill him and his family while he was being called such names as ‘“moth-- f--ker and sand nigger.”
      While taking the report of the allegations, Ptl. Jeffrey Lytle said “another call came in” and the officer “heard a male swearing and making threats.”
      According to a search warrant affidavit prepared by Det. Greg Stepuk of the Boardman Police Department, police traced the call that Officer Lytle answered.
      “The private number making the threats...revealed that it was an AT&T number assigned to Charles Muth,” Stepuk wrote in the affidavit.
      Three days later, near 2:00 a.m., police were summoned to the home of Rawhneh’s ex-wife, Aimee K. Benton, 43, of 7489 Jaguar Dr., where Officer Lytle took a report of discharging a firearm into a habitation and felonious assault.
      Benton and Rawhneh were married in Nov., 2003 in West Virgina; and they divorced in Sept., 2005.
      At the Jaguar Dr. home, Officer Lytle spoke with Rawhneh and Benton.
      Benton told police she and her 7-year-old daughter, Nadia, were sleeping in the living room of the home when she heard approximately four gunshots.
      “Benton stated since she was asleep, she was not sure at first what happened, so she sent a text message to Rawhneh, who then called her,” Officer Lytle said.
      When Rawhneh got to the home, he called police.
      Stepuk interviewed Rawhneh, who said that Muth was a former close friend and business associate.
      “Rawhneh stated that he and Muth had a falling out [in 2009] in which Muth believes Rawhneh turned him into the Ohio Department of Taxation for improperly reporting sales tax collected at his business,” Stepuk said in the search warrant affidavit.
      Police found two bullet holes on the outside of the home, and inside found two bullet holes in what was believed to be the child’s bedroom. Suspected damage from the bullets was also found inside the home on a ceiling fan and an armoire, Officer Lytle reported.
      Also in the home at the time of the shooting was a family friend, identified as Dominique Gilmore, 21, who was sleeping in an upstairs bedroom.
      “None of the victims were shot or reported to be injured,” Officer Lytle said.
      Rawhneh’s former home was also the subject of a surveillance directed by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), that logged license plates on vehicles coming and going from 7489 Jaguar Dr.
      The investigation into the shooting led police to a Muth rented at 9075 Briarwood Ct., Canfield where on a search warrant for the gun used in the shooting was issued.
      Law enforcement found more than 400 marihuana plants yielding some 20,000 grams of pot under cultivation in the rented home, reported owned by Richard Saul when they first arrived to serve the warrant.
      A warrant was issued for Muth’s arrest and he was taken into custody on Jan. 9, 2012 at John Hopkins International Airport in Cleveland, apparently landing there after a trip out of state. Originally, Muth is reported to have left the area on a flight out of Pittsburgh, leaving his car there. Muth was booked on charges of the illegal manufacture of drugs, aggravated menacing and ethnic intimidation. He was released on a $15,750 bond.
      Now the subject of a local and federal cases, Muth hired Atway as his counsel in both cases, and according to the government, “on occasion, Cochran helped to represent Muth in the state case (menacing and ethnic intimidation).”
      The indictment filed last week notes that Muth “independently recorded conversations with his lawyers.”
      Once Muth retained Atway, the indictment alleges that Atway, Cochran and Rawhneh conspired extort Muth, “induced by wrongful use of actual and threatened force, violence and fear...to enrich themselves...”
      Rawhneh and Atway “led Muth to believe that Rawhneh would cause physical ham to Muth,” says the indictment.
      Rawhneh and Atway had known each other previously, including in 1997 when Atway served as counsel for Rawhneh in a court case in Mahoning County.
      And, according to a variety of sources, Rawhneh and Muth had issues ‘over money’ at the time Muth was arrested on the cultivation, menacing and intimidation charges.
      “Atway and Cochran, while they were purportedly representing Muth as his lawyers, in fact, helped to formulate the means by which Rawhneh would obtain money and property from Muth,” the indictment that was issued last week alleges.
      The government says Atway, Cochran and Rawhneh conspired to extort Muth from about Apr., 2012 to Nov. 2012.
      According to the indictment, on Nov. 9, 2012, there was a conversation between Atway, Cochran and Rawhneh.
      Atway tells Rawhneh that he and Cochran are on a speaker phone, when Cochran says “Mo, you got to pay for the dry cleaner coming in [to his office] and wash my couch and chair because this guy [Muth] just shitted in his pants in my conference room.”
      Atway tells Rawhneh that Muth “just came in with $5600 cash...he agreed to give you the mortgage against his property, and he agreed to pay you $5000 a month for he next nine months, because that is all he can afford to pay, and he is begging you to take this offer, and he wants to apologize to you, face to face, like a man.”
      Later in the conversation, Rawhneh seems to reject the offer, saying $5000 would not cover the cost of the damage to Rawhneh’s former home on Jaguar Dr.
      “I don’t know any other way to get you the money,” Cochran responds, according to the indictment, at which point Atway is quoted as saying, “Take whatever you can get off this faggot...He’s worth more...alive than dead.”
      “Not really,” Rawhneh replies. “I would rather see somebody kill him and he can shove that f--king money up his ass.” You know what I mean, f--k him and f--k the money if you want the truth.”
      According to the indictment, Rawhneh says “Is he [Muth] playing russian roulette...I don’t give a f--k if I get a f--king rocket, I am gonna blow it right there, me and him. Is he that stupid?”
      According to the indictment, Atway tells Rawhneh, “Anytime he [Muth] sees you, he gets nervous too.”
      Cochran then chimes back in, according to the indictment, saying “Well, I just don’t want the mother f--ker crying in my office anymore. Alright?”
      Rawhneh responds, “Well too bad, he’s your client. You are making money from him. The more he cries, the more money you make. So shut the hell up Scott.”
      According to the indictment, about an hour after the conversation between the attorneys and Rawhneh, the pair of lawyers converse with Muth.
      Muth asks if Rawhneh was interested in a convenient store Muth apparently operated on Dresden St. in East Liverpool known as Crawford’s Market.
      According to the indictment, Cochran responds to Muth, “he wants $50,000 and if you don’t have that, he said he would take Dresden. He’d prefer you just pay him the money.”
      The next day, the indictment says that Atway talked to Rawhneh, advising Rawhneh, “We [Atway and Cochran] talked to the jackass [Muth] yesterday.”
      According to the indictment, Rawhneh calls Muth a jackass and Atway laughs, responding about his client, “Yeah, you are right.”
      On Nov. 14, 2012, FBI agents interviewed Atway and Cochran and according to the indictment, on Nov. 15, Atway told Rawhneh that he no longer represented Muth.
      “Atway, Cochran and Rawhneh made false and misleading statements and material misrepresentations to the FBI,” says the indictment.
      Among those misrepresentations, according to the indictment, “When the FBI asked, has Mo Rawhneh ever said anything like in the third person, I wish somebody would kill him, Atway replied no.”
      All three were arraigned last week before U.S. Magistrate Judge Kenneth S, McHargh and all three entered pleas of not guilty.
      Rawhneh and Cochran each posted appearance bonds of $25,000 and Atway posted an appearance bond of $250,000.