The Decade and a half Battle to Obtain Voice Recordings made by Dawn Pasela Enters a New Year

 

Since a May, 2009 written request by attorneys seeking any voice recordings with Tony Viola’s voice on them, no voice recording have ever been produced, either by federal prosecutor Mark Bennett in USA v. Viola, 08-cr-506, N.D. Ohio, or by state prosecutor Dan Kasaris in Ohio v. Viola, 10-cr-536877, or in related litigation.  And after initially denying that such recordings exist, both Bennett and Kasaris subsequently admitted that recordings of Tony’s defense trial preparation do exist and were made by Dawn Pasela after his indictment.  But even those admissions – as well as a court order by a federal judge to compel the production of voice recordings – have yet to result in the recordings themselves being produced.

2025 marks the start of the 16th year in an effort to obtain voice recordings that Prosecutors Mark Bennett and Dan Kasaris were required by law to produce years ago.

Background – Dawn Pasela

Born in 1985, Dawn (pictured above) graduated at the top of her class at Cleveland State and at Cuyahoga County Community College, Dawn was hired by Prosecutors Dan Kasaris and Mark Bennett as Office Manager of a multi-jurisdictional Mortgage Fraud Task Force.  One of the cases 1,000 cases prosecuted by the Task Force was that of real estate broker Tony Viola, who was indicted in both state and federal court and accused of stealing $46 million in the “nation’s largest mortgage fraud case.” Tony never engaged in any mortgage origination, lending, underwriting or processing and never borrowed any funds himself, and maintained his innocence.  When Bennett and Kasaris discovered their case against Tony was riddled with factual errors, they became concerned their high-profile case was about to fall apart and took the extraordinary step of directing Dawn to pose as paralegal working with local defense attorneys on similar cases, then offer to assist Tony’s defense. Dawn recorded a series of post-indictment conversations so prosecutors could obtain confidential defense trial strategy information. Kasaris and Bennett also ordered Dawn to donate funds towards Tony’s legal fees so they could use her cancelled checks to identify the law firm's bank account.  During this undercover operation, Dawn became concerned that these actions were wrong and that prosecutors were withholding key evidence in many Task Force’s prosecutions, and made much of available to Tony before his second trial, where he was exonerated.  Also, during that proceeding, Dawn offered to testify about prosecutorial misconduct but was found dead in her apartment under suspicious circumstances, details at www.JusticeForDawn.com.

Initial Denials by Prosecutors Kasaris and Bennett that Recordings Exist

Both before and after Tony’s federal trial, Bennett continuously maintained that allegations that Dawn wore a wire or donated funds toward his legal fees were false, writing:

“Viola claims … Dawn Pasela secretly recorded conversations with Viola, post indictment.  Viola also argues that prosecutors used cancelled checks from Pasela’s contributions to Viola’s legal defense fund to identify the fund’s bank account. … Viola’s claims of government misconduct relating to Pasela are not true … claims of government misconduct with respect to Pasela is blatantly untrue,” USA v. Viola, 08-cr-506, N.D. Ohio, Docket # 483, page 21, 6/16/15.

Likewise, Senior Assistant Ohio Attorney General Dan Kasaris never produced any recordings with Dawn’s voice on them, and told Kevin Spellacy that any allegation that Dawn recorded Tony was “a lie.”

Shifting Explanations, New Admissions, The Task Force Director Comes Forward and a Federal Court issues an Order to compel production of the recordings – but, still, no recordings have ever been produced

          In 2013, the FreeTonyViola.com Investigative Team obtained the first piece of documentary evidence that confirmed what Dawn told Tony – that Dawn was ordered to record Tony’s trial preparation.  That year, the Ohio Supreme Court’s Disciplinary Counsel obtained an admission by Prosecutor Kasaris that Dawn wore a wire and recorded Tony, but Kasaris claimed that the sound quality was poor and, as a result, the recordings were not provided to the defense.  This statement is contrary to law, as both Ohio and federal criminal Rule 16 require prosecutors to produce voice recordings with a defendant’s voice on them before trial.

          Utilizing this new admission as a foundation, litigation was initiated to seek a court order to compel the production of the voice recordings, Viola v. U.S. Department of Justice, 15-cv-242, W.D. Pa.  At a November 10, 2016 status hearing, Hon. Susan Paradise Baxter ordered “expedited production of tapes and/or of transcripts of tapes” made by “Ms. Pasela,” or any recordings with her voice on them.

Despite the court order, several years passed without any recordings being provided.  Then, federal prosecutor Mark Bennett was fired by the Justice Department for grave misconduct.  Once Bennett was no longer involved in evidence production, other government officials, including Assistant US Attorney Michael Colville, began a careful review of evidence, only to discover that Bennett made false statements, and issued an apology for “inaccuracies and the resulting inconvenience.”  Likewise, the FBI also admitted its prior statements were also false, stating that it relied on representations of Bennett, who “failed to obtain all portions of the responsive records.”

A further breakthrough took place in 2022, when former Task Force Chairman Donald Cleland provided a sworn statement confirming the existence of recordings made by Dawn, along with an admission that Dawn was given hard drives with evidence in some or all 1,100 of the Task Force’s criminal cases evidence on them – Dawn later gave some of these records to Tony before his second trial.

In 2024, following his disbarment proceedings, and on the eve of a YouTube live investigative series by Seeking Justice, Mark Bennett's attorney Michael Harvey made a new admission:

“As part of trial preparation, the FBI Agent assigned to the federal trial learned of the recording from one of the agents working on the state prosecution case.  Mr. Bennett immediately instructed the FBI agent to obtain a copy of the one recording and listen to the recording … Bennett advised the Agent to make copies … and provide it to defense counsel,” 2024 letter to Seeking Justice.

Yale Law School Accepts Tony’s Case, and New Litigation Launched to Depose Mark Bennett

Following admissions that government officials lied in sworn statements in federal court about evidence, the United States Court of Appeals appointed The Yale Law School Appellate Clinic to represent Tony and submit a legal, Viola v. Department of Justice, et. al., case number 22-2186, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.  A ruling in that case is pending.

Late in 2024, utilizing the latest admissions by Mark Bennett, Viola filed new, narrowly focused litigation filed in Washington, D.C., Viola v. U.S. Department of Justice, Case # 1:24-cv-02026-TSC, seeking Mark Bennett’s deposition to determine exactly what he knows about the whereabouts of the recordings and any related materials, including notes, a consent to wear a wire or any further information about Dawn.

As of January, 2025, Tony and Dawn’s family and supporters are awaiting rulings in pending cases and continuing their efforts to obtain all information about Dawn or any materials related to Tony’s prosecution.

To learn more about what happened to Dawn Pasela, kindly visit www.JusticeForDawn.com. To learn more about the criminal prosecution of Tony Viola, and how he established his innocence at a second trial, or to view any of the documents mentioned in this blog post, kindly visit www.FreeTonyViola.com.

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