YOUNGSTOWN — Proceedings continued Friday in the case of a Columbiana man accused of rape.

The trial of Matthew Nicholson, 47, of Garfield Road, was postponed Feb. 23 after defense attorney John Shultz learned Feb. 20 that the Mahoning County Prosecutor’s Office had failed to turn evidence over to him.

In a Feb. 22 motion, Shultz requested at least a postponement — which Mahoning County Common Pleas Court Judge Maureen Sweeney granted — and possible sanctions against the state for violating discovery rules. Friday’s hearing focused on whether those sanctions might be imposed.

In discussing a series of text messages that were furnished after Feb. 20, Shultz said the state flouted the legal process from the start.

“There’s at least one portion not redacted that I think is exculpatory and unfortunately that probably was not provided to the Mahoning County grand jury that returned this (indictment),” he said. “What other evidence was not presented to the grand jury that may have altered its findings in the indictment?”

Nicholson is charged with three counts of rape, a first-degree felony; one count of sexual battery, a third-degree felony; and one count of aggravated drug possession, a second-degree felony.

He is accused of two rapes against a person in April 2024 by engaging in sexual conduct with the person by compelling them to submit by force or threat of force. Nicholson also is accused of raping another person in early 2023.

Shultz called the late notification about the evidence “egregious.” His motion states that on the day the trial was to begin, Mahoning County Assistant Prosecutor Melissa Dinsio texted him to tell him there were 382 photographs that were never disclosed to Shultz.

Later that day, he also learned about text messages that were possibly helpful to the defense’s case from an alleged victim, a report from the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation and three other investigative reports. He received all of the items in the few days following.

On Friday, he also said that an external hard drive containing more than 400 hours of video also was not provided in a timely fashion.

At the Feb. 23 hearing, Mahoning County Prosecutor Lynn Maro said the prosecutor’s office had repeatedly asked the sheriff’s office for “everything the sheriff’s office had on this. And we believed we had everything. We then discovered three additional police reports” and then learned of the text messages.

Shultz took exception to the prosecutor’s explanation on Friday.

“I respectfully submit to the court that this indictment is not a three-party action. It’s a two-party action,” he said. “And I think to just transfer blame to their investigating officers does not excuse their obligations to provide me with that discovery.”

Shultz said the prosecutor’s office also has entered into plea agreements with one or more of the alleged victims, and at least one of them is serving a jail sentence in Trumbull county for unspecified offenses. He said that information was not part of the original conviction and criminal record information provided as part of the discovery process.

Shultz said dismissal of charges has to be considered.

“There are times when I feel this court has to enforce justice and force the parties to comply with their obligations to seek justice,” he said.

In doing so, he referred to last week’s dismissal by visiting and retired Trumbull County Common Pleas Judge Wyatt McKay of Youngstown’s $834,608 civil lawsuit against developer Dominic Marchionda, two of his companies and former city Finance Director David Bozanich because the city failed to serve the defendants with the complaint in a timely manner. That error has been mostly attributed to errors in the office of embattled Mahoning County Clerk of Courts Michael P. Ciccone.

For her part, Dinsio did claim responsibility for the files containing redacted text messages that were sent to the court. She said she intended to send one copy with the redacted portions in place and one unredacted copy.

“In fact, I apparently did send two copies of the redacted files to the court, and this court will have the unredacted version before I walk out of the court today. That is my fault,” she said.

Dinsio also acknowledged that while there is no longer any missing evidence — the lack of which could cause the court to view Nicholson prejudicially — had the trial proceeded on Feb. 20, the missing evidence would have had that effect.

Dinsio said the prosecutor’s office is not shifting blame to the sheriff’s office and the county offices both view themselves as co-equal parts of the state’s prosecution system, with equal responsibility for handling evidence properly.

Major Jeff Allen, who supervises the sheriff’s office detective bureau, is the lead officer on the Nicholson case, who has both investigated it and supervised others on the case.

Allen, called as a witness Friday, also admitted to mistakes he said have never happened before in his career.

Allen said he “dropped the ball” on providing the external hard drive with the video content because in reviewing it he did not believe there was any evidentiary value to it. The video, he said, mostly consists of home surveillance video confiscated from Nicholson’s residence during execution of a search warrant.

Allen said it shows the perspective from the home’s doorway looking out and that at no time was there any activity that appeared to be of evidentiary value to anyone.

“It didn’t seem to have anything to do with the evidence I was looking for, I was involved in another investigation, it slipped my mind, and I dropped the ball,” Allen said.

Shultz said Allen failed to consider that while the video may not contain anything Allen was looking for, it could contain something Shultz would find valuable.

Allen and Dinsio both assured Sweeney that the court and Shultz both have all the available evidence for the case, although Shultz said he will never be completely convinced of that.

Sweeney ruled that the state’s mistake was not a willful violation of discovery rules and declined to impose sanctions on the state at this time. The court has granted a continuance in the case and she assured Shultz he will have ample time before a new trial date is set to review the evidence. Sweeney also noted that Nicholson is out on bond and fully able to participate in preparation of his defense, so there is no harm to him in that way.