9/27/03

Defendant said the charge was unjust.

By STEPHEN SIFF

and PEGGY SINKOVICH

VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF

WARREN -- Accompanied by her lawyer from the public defender's office -- and her hair dresser -- Karen Delmont pleaded innocent Friday afternoon in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court to charges of money laundering.

Prosecutors contend Delmont helped her husband, Tony, launder $17,000 worth of bribes from Envirochemical, a Bedford Heights vendor.

Tony Delmont is head of the county maintenance department and has been implicated in a scheme to bilk the county out of hundreds of thousands of dollars by buying janitorial supplies at grossly inflated prices.

The checks totaling $17,000 were written to Karen Delmont, prosecutors say. "This is completely unjust," Karen Delmont said, as a hairdresser helped her with makeup in a courtroom lobby Friday.

She said she was devastated when she learned she was secretly indicted by the county grand jury.

Sheriff's deputies Friday afternoon whisked Delmont from a chair in the New Attitudes beauty salon in Howland so she could answer to the charges in court.

She arrived in a sweat shirt and ripped jeans, blond hair still wet and hair dresser Denee Harrison in tow.

Harrison said she went in the cruiser with her client because Mrs. Delmont was very upset when deputies arrived.

Judge W. Wyatt McKay set Delmont's bond at $2,500. She is scheduled to return to court Oct. 29.

Husband's plea: Earlier on Friday, her husband, Tony, also pleaded innocent to money laundering, theft in office and five counts of bribery.

Prosecutors say Tony Delmont helped cleaning supply companies bilk some $400,000 from Trumbull County between 1999 to 2002 in return for bribes.

Delmont, who has been on workers' compensation since February as a result of a snowplow accident, was put on unpaid leave by county commissioners last week.

Commissioner Joseph J. Angelo Jr. says he would rather keep Delmont on unpaid leave until the criminal case is resolved.

Karen Delmont worked for the county from 1985 to 1998, when she retired on disability.

As a receptionist and secretary in the treasurer's office, she earned $26,082 a year. Her husband earns more than $70,000 in his job as maintenance director.

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Karen Delmont  filed for divorce from her husband the following week. She is said to be cooperating with investigators.