Elyria businessman Mark O’Donnell was sentenced to six months in prison Wednesday for bribing Ohio Department of Transportation officials.

O’Donnell, 60, had pleaded guilty last month to a single bribery charge that could have sent him to prison for up to a year.

O’Donnell’s company, North Shore Door Co., was at the center of the broad corruption investigation that led to him being sent to prison.

A former employee of O’Donnell’s sent an e-mail to the state accusing him of offering gratuities to ODOT officials in exchange for contracts at the agency’s Garfield Heights office.

The e-mail touched off an investigation that already has led to 10 ODOT employees and vendors being charged and Ryan Miday, a spokesman for Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Bill Mason, said another wave of indictments is expected in the coming weeks.

O’Donnell, whose attorney did not return a call seeking comment, has said in the past he had little choice but to make payments for Christmas parties at Cleveland strip clubs for ODOT employees and vendors.

A report completed last year by Ohio Inspector General Tom Charles said O’Donnell’s involvement went far beyond paying for Christmas parties.

The report accused O’Donnell of hosting an annual “ODOT Boat Day” on his 36-foot boat for himself, ODOT officials, vendors and Cleveland strippers, all of whom spent the events “drinking, swimming and frolicking.”

O’Donnell was trying to gain the favor of two ODOT officials who also have been implicated in the investigation – Dennis Kratochvil, the ODOT district’s facilities manager, and Terrence Kosmata, the district’s equipment manager.

Neither man has been charged for their alleged role, but Kratochvil has been charged with threatening a witness in the case.

According to Charles’ report, Kratochvil allowed O’Donnell to overcharge for labor, assess a fuel surcharge to ODOT and purchase off-contract products.

Miday said O’Donnell also was fined $2,500 and ordered to pay the state $20,000 in restitution by Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge Kathleen Ann Sutula.

“He made cash payments to an ODOT official in return for increased sales at his business,” Miday said.

O’Donnell isn’t the first Lorain County businessman to receive prison time in the case. Craig Gorsuch, the owner of North Ridgeville-based West Shore New Holland, was sentenced to six months in prison last month.

Gorsuch, whose firm deals in heavy machinery, pleaded guilty to bribery and, like O’Donnell, cooperated with investigators.

Charles’ report accused Gorsuch of flying Kosmata to Texas for two hunting trips and buying him new rifles before each trip. Those and other incentives he gave to ODOT officials led to the charges against Gorsuch, according to prosecutors.

Contact Brad Dicken at 329-7147 or bdicken@chroniclet.com.

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