If Looks Could Kill (37 page)

The following morning, Bob Meeker and Mike Bowler didn’t waltz into court saying anything about Cynthia testifying. Many knew it likely wasn’t going to happen, seeing how devastating it could be for Cynthia if she happened to say the wrong thing and open a vein of her life that had yet to be explored. Maybe it was safe if she kept quiet and hedged her bets, knowing full well that a judge might view her silence as a weakness.

Cynthia’s defense called two witnesses. Cynthia had been seeing a therapist, Alan Kurzweil, during the period shortly before she and Jeff Zack had split. At first, Kurzweil talked about how Cynthia had been referred to him by her psychiatrist in January 2001. Kurzweil called himself a counselor, someone who sat, listened to problems and then offered solutions.

Ed George’s wife was “depressed and stressed,” Kurzweil stated, when he began evaluating her condition. Cynthia’s demeanor mimicked that of a child’s, the doctor seemed to say. She was caught between a Cinderella world of wealth, which she had dreamt of as a young teen, and a lonely life inside that castle, once she realized she had gotten what she wanted. For years, it was a melancholic state of emotional pain and retreat that she fed by having affairs with strangely tarnished men she related to in a way that was representative of her childhood. The woman had been lonely. With a husband working all hours of the night and day, she became bored. She filled that void with affairs.

Kurzweil said Cynthia spoke of a “friend” who was rather “abusive” toward her and that she wanted to end the relationship, but couldn’t find a way to do it.

In a sense, Kurzweil’s testimony boosted the prosecution’s case, ostensibly laying a foundation for the theory that Cynthia could not get rid of Zack in a traditional way, so she resulted to one of the oldest tricks in the book.

Jeff Zack, the doctor admitted, referring to him as Cynthia’s “friend,” had been calling her, at one time, every two hours, acting quite “bizarre” and irrational. Cynthia had even told Kurzweil that he had threatened to put a contract on her life, saying something to the effect of, “If I can’t have you, no one can.”

Kurzweil suggested to her as part of his treatment that she should tell her husband about the affair. Admit her shortcomings, plead for forgiveness, and have Ed help her deal with a man who had become a major problem in her life.

In response to that, Cynthia cried. She said she was living with what was then an older man who was “severely depressed” himself. She had always viewed their relationship, she admitted, as a “father-daughter” type of love, and felt she couldn’t confide in him the way she could with her various lovers.

Three months after she started the counseling sessions, Cynthia stopped going. Three months later, her problem was gone; Zack was dead.

Next, in what would be Meeker and Bowler’s final witness, Ed George walked slowly up to the stand and took a seat. One had to admire a man who stood by a wife who had cheated on him repeatedly throughout their marriage. Ed was a pillar in the community. He and his family had been in the restaurant business for over five decades. Many people didn’t like Ed George, but most respected him and viewed his success as a symbol of what hard work could accomplish.

Ed initially talked about how he and Cynthia met. He seemed confident and sure in his words. Even sincere. Then he discussed how he and Jeff Zack, along with Cynthia and Bonnie, became “acquaintances” in 1991 after meeting inside his bar. For a while, things went well. Christmases. Halloween parties with the kids. Thanksgivings. Birthday parties. They were all friends. He didn’t think anything more of it.

Much of Ed’s testimony seemed to center around how much he worked. “It’s the business I chose,” he said at one point.

Ed’s work had had an impact not only on his life, but on his marriage. He knew that. It was during Christmas Eve, 2000, he explained, while he and Cynthia and the kids were attending holiday services at St. Vincent Church, when he understood that the problems between Jeff Zack and Cynthia were beginning to affect the marriage. He wasn’t aware of the affair then, he insisted, or that Ruby had been fathered by Zack, but the story he told the judge seemed to echo with reverberations of a man beginning to acknowledge that his wife was stepping out on him. “I heard a loud voice,” Ed testified, talking about that incident inside the church, “but I couldn’t decipher what was being said.” Cynthia was talking on her cell phone. It was Christmas Eve. They were in God’s house.
What in the heck is going on?
“Cindy became very upset in church. She said it was Jeff Zack and she asked him to please just leave her alone. She just wanted to be with Jesus on that night.”

She just wanted to be with Jesus….
It sounded so strange. So unlike something Cynthia would say. She was talking to a man she had been sleeping with then for nearly nine years. Not to mention, she was already involved with John Zaffino. But on that night, she had just wanted to be with her husband, children and, of course, Jesus.

Jeff Zack wouldn’t accept that from Cynthia and lashed back with what Ed described as a litany of offensive remarks. It wasn’t until one month later, Ed testified, that he contacted Paul Callahan at the APD and began talking to him about what he could do in regard to “a man harassing” his wife.

Meeker asked Ed why he didn’t file a police report after talking to Callahan.

“I didn’t want to air all of our dirty laundry and have the media and other people find out.”

Again, Ed’s words seemed to benefit the prosecution, pointing to the fact that Cynthia was out of options when it came to getting rid of Jeff Zack.

Ed admitted that he didn’t learn of the affair between Cynthia and Jeff Zack until after Zack was murdered—and didn’t have any idea Ruby was Zack’s child until the APD came calling with a court order to get a buccal swab of Ruby’s cheek.

Slowly, with a trace of sorrow in his voice, Meeker then asked the question that perhaps anyone following the case from day one wanted answered. It had to be said. “Why remain married to Cindy after learning those things?”

“Well,” Ed said resolutely, with the natural ease of a man who had come to terms with his wife’s transgressions and had obviously forgiven her, “the first reason is, I took a marriage vow…. I firmly believe in that. I’m a devout Christian. I think a mother is important in raising the children. I don’t think you can raise a family without a mother.”

It seemed that the letters Cynthia wrote to Zaffino didn’t matter to Ed. He was standing behind his wife and nothing was going to change his mind. He may have looked like a fool, a pushover, but what mattered to Ed George was the love he could
give
his wife, not the other way around. Anyone who knew Ed said later that he was devoted to his children. One would have to imagine that his devotion to the children was one of the reasons why he had put up with so much for so long. “I look at my wife,” Ed added calmly, staring at Cynthia, “and the things we have been through. I see this person I met at that time. I have always hoped that person would return.” He paused. Then quietly, “And she has.”

Over a calendar week of testimony, Judge Cosgrove heard a case that was fairly cut-and-dry: either you bought the prosecution’s version of events or you didn’t. Cynthia’s lawyers, on the other hand, didn’t have to explain or prove her innocence.

The prosecution’s case was all circumstantial. No forensic or witness testimony had tied Cynthia to the murder of Jeff Zack. Cynthia’s lawyers were certain that was enough to allow her to walk out of the courtroom a free woman.

On Wednesday, November 23, both sides presented closing arguments. When they were finished, Judge Cosgrove announced she would study the evidence and present her verdict by 11:00
A.M
. on Monday.

Cynthia and Ed George’s children had all attended Catholic schools. They were a family of Christians. No one could deny them that. Cynthia, too, fashioned herself as a devout follower of Jesus Christ—yet her behavior hardly fit with what Jesus would have perceived as a devoted disciple. She had sinned. No doubt about it. But she had also come to terms with those sins—or so she claimed—had asked for forgiveness and, in some respects, had been granted it. At least the one man who mattered most to her had done so.

Judge Cosgrove, who had promised an 11:00
A.M
. verdict, emerged from her chambers by eleven-thirty, walked into the courtroom, cutting a silence throughout, and began to read the results of her assessment of the testimony and evidence.

Cynthia sat smiling at friends and family, over a dozen strong, there to support her. She was seemingly undeterred by what might become of her life. She had kissed three of her children and Ed before heading to the table where her attorneys waited.

Cynthia’s youngest daughter sat in the gallery with a crucifix in her hand and mouthed what many assumed was the Lord’s Prayer.

Judge Cosgrove sat at the bench and read from her ten-page verdict. As soon as she got a few paragraphs into it, a flurry of applause and “yeses” rang out from Cynthia’s side of the courtroom. The judge explained that prosecutors had “failed to prove” Cynthia conspired with John Zaffino in an attempt on Jeff Zack’s life that night at the Cuyahoga Valley National Park when the park ranger caught up with Zaffino as he came walking out of the woods.

Quieting the crowd, however, Judge Cosgrove made a point to say next that her “first verdict applied only to the conspiracy count.”

This comment by itself silenced the room. Jolly faces turned serious. Cynthia’s posse must have known that bad news was forthcoming. Why else would the judge even mention it? In fact, it didn’t take long for the George crowd to go from pure elation to utter shock as Judge Cosgrove’s verdict reading began to suggest guilt: “‘The defendant claims that if Mr. Zaffino was the killer of Jeff Zack, then it was a spur-of-the-moment decision. The evidence does not support this decision,’” Cosgrove inferred. “‘The one constant in this case is that Cynthia George has not completely told the truth to anyone.’”

Utter silence.

“‘This court is convinced, but for the conduct of Cindy George in financing and inducing John Zaffino to commit a crime, Jeff Zack would not have been murdered.’”

Jaws dropped.
What? No…it can’t be.

In the end, those letters Cynthia wrote to Zaffino were what ultimately sunk her. Cosgrove quoted from one, saying, “‘We must…listen to counsel, God is also working through them, too. Pray for their wisdom, we cannot make one mistake.’”

There was a brief pause.

As Judge Cosgrove continued, the George crowd gasped. Cynthia trembled and fell into the arms of one of her attorneys. She could be heard wailing and crying hysterically as the inevitable was read into the record.

In the thick of it all, as whispers and jubilation were heard from one end of the courtroom, Ed George yelled, “We support you.”

“‘Without Mrs. George’s encouragement and influence in procuring and convincing Mr. John Zaffino to commit this murder, it could not have been accomplished on June 16, 2001,’” Cosgrove said. “‘In conclusion, there is no “smoking gun” in this case. What there is, is an abundance of direct and circumstantial evidence proving beyond a reasonable doubt that she procured and/or solicited John Zaffino to commit aggravated murder in the death of Jeff Zack.’”

The judge said she had deliberated the case over the three-day Thanksgiving weekend. She explained how she had traveled to the courthouse each day to review evidence.

With the verdict in, Cosgrove said she would sentence Cynthia after she had the opportunity to speak for herself.

The judge’s guilty finding came in regard to the complicity to aggravated murder charge. It was the worst possible scenario for Cynthia.

“First of all,” Cynthia said through tears, standing and facing the judge, “I just want to tell you I didn’t do it. I know it points that way, but I
didn’t
do it. I was just seeking help. I know this has been a tough decision for you and I know you are fair and I know how it looks. I will appeal this verdict.”

Cynthia’s sentence seemed to be the most sobering detail of the late morning: life in prison without a chance of parole for twenty-three years. Barring any positive judgment on appeal, Cynthia would be in her mid-seventies by the time she could face a parole board and plead for her freedom.

While being handcuffed before she was led away to prison, Ed George spoke out to his wife, giving her the thumbs-up sign, saying in haste, “Keep your chin up, Cindy, we’re here right behind you.”

On Wednesday of that week, Cynthia was driven in a white van with bars on the windows to the Ohio Reformatory for Women in Marysville, more than a two-hour ride from Akron. Ed had told his wife to keep her chin up. When Cynthia was booked after she was found guilty, her photograph was taken. In that booking photograph, she did exactly what her husband had suggested—but on top of standing erect with her chin held high, as if she didn’t have a care in the world, Cynthia smiled for the photograph. It was an awkward smile, more Hollywood than anything. It spoke to how pompous and arrogant the woman could be. Here she was heading off to prison for the rest of her life and all she could do was smile. Odd behavior for a woman who was so concerned about not being able to see one of her daughters that she reverted to allegedly sanctioning the murder of the man who had apparently made the threat. She couldn’t have been smiling at the notion that she would now only see her children at weekly intervals—if she was lucky—in the confines of a women’s prison. Was there anything, really, left to smile about?

Apparently, Cynthia knew what no one else did: because, in the coming months, she would have plenty to smile about.

On January 3, 2007, Cynthia George, then a fifty-two-year-old women beginning to show her age, was once again in court. There she sat, wearing a pink suit coat, staring expectantly at a three-judge panel in the Ninth District Court of Appeals. With a look of bewilderment on her ashen face, her hand was cradled up against her chin, as she watched her new lawyers go to work.

If anyone had wondered where Ed George stood in the face of having a wife tucked away in prison, he answered by showing up in court to support Cynthia once again. Ed had always claimed to be a devout Catholic, and perhaps he had forgiven Cynthia with every aching muscle of his pious heart. When asked by a local newspaper, Ed said he “continues to stand by his wife in her efforts to prove her innocence and is in total agreement with the arguments of her new lawyers.”

The main cusp of Cynthia’s argument centered on the notion that she was “denied her constitutional right” to a reputable defense during her 2005 trial.

How?

Cynthia’s new lawyers, Max Kravitz and Bradley Barbin, claimed Bob Meeker and Mike Bowler, her former attorneys, should have never been allowed to represent her in the first place. In fact, Kravitz and Barbin argued, Cynthia would not have even been indicted if Meeker and Bowler hadn’t arranged for the payments of fifteen thousand dollars and five hundred dollars to her lover, John Zaffino, and Larry Whitney, Zaffino’s lawyer, as part of what they termed “a joint defense agreement.” In theory, Cynthia’s new lawyers were saying the state’s most telling and damaging evidence against Cynthia was that so-called “hush money” she had supposedly paid Zaffino to keep quiet. Without that evidence, they said, the state had no case.

Attorney Barbin explained to the appeals judges that Patricia Cosgrove, the judge who oversaw Cynthia’s trial, should have invoked a conflict of interest, as Mike Carroll and his office had originally argued when they filed a motion before trial. When that failed, Meeker and Bowler shouldn’t have been allowed to continue representing Cynthia; they should have, Barbin said, “voluntarily” withdrawn from the case.

Addressing the judges, Barbin said quite portentously, “For the conduct of counsel in this case, Cynthia Rohr-George may not have been indicted, and most certainly would not have been convicted…. I think the court is aware that until January 2005, there was no indictment of Miss George. It was only
after
the investigation began, regarding the conversations between Mr. Zaffino and Mike Bowler (her former lawyer)…that this case became a complicity case. I would ask the court to look very carefully at the timing of the payments in this case. I would suggest that despite the prosecution’s best efforts to remove Mike Bowler and Bob Meeker…they didn’t go far enough.”

In that respect, it was the state’s burden to get rid of a defendant’s inadequate counsel?

Further along, Barbin added, “And the reason they didn’t go far enough is, if you look at that motion that Mr. Bogdanoff (Mike Carroll’s colleague) himself signed, you see fourteen instances of not just legal payment references, but actually conduct of counsel that goes
well
beyond legal payments. For instance, in the April 23, 2003, conversation, there is a clear suggestion in that both Mr. Bowler
and
Mr. [Larry] Whitney are going to be jointly representing both Zaffino and Cynthia George. That is
exactly
what [the cases I’ve referenced in my argument] are about. It is the type of problem that is discussed in [another case example] where lawyers get themselves thoroughly immersed in the case and almost become accessories after the fact….”

Strong contentions made by competent lawyers now saying that Cynthia George deserved a second chance because she had been so thoroughly damaged by the conduct of what were incompetent counselors.

But wasn’t it too late for all this?

According to the state, the problem with the argument was that in March 2005, during a hearing on the matter before Cynthia’s trial began, Meeker and Bowler said they
should
be allowed to stay on the case because the transaction of exchanging money between defendants was in the due process of what was called a “joint defense fund.”

Judge Cosgrove agreed. Nothing more was said of it.

Mike Carroll had moved on to other cases. In the state’s rebuttal argument, Summit County assistant prosecutor Philip Bogdanoff took over and explained to the judges that “the issue of conflict of interest by defense lawyers” was never raised then and shouldn’t matter now. “I can state on my experience that this defendant is not the first defendant to blame her attorneys for her conviction—and certainly won’t be the last,” Bogdanoff said in a somewhat subdued, comfortable and determined manner. He was sure of himself and the judgment, and wasn’t about to allow Cynthia’s new attorneys to walk all over Judge Cosgrove’s ruling. “The attorneys in this case—and I will say to you there were
five
attorneys in this case [for the defendant]—were
not
ineffective. The defendant raises the actions of two attorneys, primarily one, Mike Bowler…. What I want this court to realize is, what occurred at the trial level. What the defendant’s [claim] is, is that Mr. Bowler and Mr. Meeker had a conflict of interest in this case. That was
not
the issue at the trial level. The issue at the trial level was that when we were investigating this case, we saw payments between the defendant, through the law firm of Meeker and Bowler, to Larry Whitney, the attorney for John Zaffino, and then these funds were used to benefit John Zaffino. We also had statements—we were listening to Mr. Zaffino’s phone calls while in prison—and he would call almost every day to [a family member]—and we would listen to these phone calls. And he was
told
that these phone calls were being recorded. He would indicate, ‘I need money from my friends, and if they don’t give me money, they are going to be in big trouble.’”

In other words, with or without trying, John Zaffino had cut Cynthia’s throat by giving investigators information regarding that so-called “hush money.” Larry Whitney and Mike Bowler had the opportunity to “testify about the joint defense agreement at the March 2005 hearing before [Judge] Cosgrove,” the state prosecutor told the judges—an opportunity that had come and gone.

The three-judge panel said they would release their decision soon.