The Boyk Brief
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The Boyk Brief
Boyk Brief Episode 39 - Mike Pizza, son of former Lucas County Prosecutor Tony Pizza
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Attorney Mike Bruno talks with Mike Pizza, son of former Lucas County Prosecutor Tony Pizza.
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Hi, I'm Mike Bruno, and I'm with the Charles Boyck Law Offices in Holland, Ohio. This is another edition of the BoIck Brief, a podcast we do. And today's podcast is all about someone who was very important and instrumental in my career growing up, Anthony Pizza, who was our elected prosecutor from 1977 to 1997 and worked a number of years prior. And our special guest today is his oldest son, Michael Paiza. So how are you doing, Mike? I'm fine, Mike. Thank you for inviting me. Well, you know, your dad was a beloved figure to the residents of this community. And we thought it would be important to devote an episode to his memory. And you were telling me he's been gone since 2007. Correct, that is right. And uh I think I was chosen because there's been some intersection in the Paisa and the Bruno family, as well as me working, you know, for your dad back in the 1980s. And we thought it'd be important to learn not just the public side of Tony Paiza, which was very important and and and he had a great career, but the side that the public perhaps didn't get the chance to see, and the family side. So we figured it'd be neat it'd be great to talk to you. Thank you.
SPEAKER_00Thank you.
SPEAKER_02So we talked a little bit about you know you growing up and everything, and some things that people probably wouldn't have known about, Tony. I will let you go. Tell us a little bit about your dad.
SPEAKER_00Actually, you used the word growing up. Uh I I think I was seven and on it was either Detroit, no, Wayne Street, which is Airport Highway Extension, across the street, down the street. We lived above the dry cleaners those first few years. And I mentioned your cousin Vito, who, as you mentioned, I'm 78. I think Vito Alive would be probably in his early 80s if he was that much older than I. So the Brunos and Piesas go back quite a ways at that time, too. My father, he went to St. Charles grade school, he failed the first grade. And my grandfather then set out a so-called edict, No More Italian, at the household. And of course, that was cheated when he went to work by my grandmother, but I do remember that too. Yeah. And then I was just asking prior to going on, you said 1976. I think he had still been in the office as an assistant at least 20 years prior to that. Oh, sure. Definitely now it had to be at least 20 years. So I think he was probably in the office a total of 40 to 45 years ago.
SPEAKER_02He was, and I I know that. And and Harry Freiburg was his predecessor. Well, and that was a mentor, too. Yeah, and when Harry when I was in the prosecutor's office, and now we're starting in 1983, Harry was coming back from Florida. He would do winters in Florida and come back to the prosecutor's office. So here's a guy in his 80s by this time. Yeah. And you know what Harry Freiburg was into in 1983? Computers.
SPEAKER_01Really?
SPEAKER_02We thought that he was the oddest duck in the world. I mean, he's he's got this little box in his office. We didn't know what the heck he was doing with it. But he would come up from Florida in the summer times and they'd give him an office. I'm not sure what he did, but he he was into computers. Yeah. So that was Tony's predecessor. Sure. Uh but I think you're right. I think Tony started in the early 50s in the prosecutor's office.
SPEAKER_00I think so. I know he started, he was very friendly with John Barone. Right. And John Barone had told him, help on the campaign. I don't know if it was Freiburg's campaign or his predecessor. I I really don't remember, Mike. It's too long ago. But either way, that eventually evolved into Tony becoming my father going into the office. And I think he was in the criminal division, if I recall. Sure. Were you in the criminal division also? Okay. Okay.
SPEAKER_02That's what idea the felony, adult felonies. But let's let's go back a little bit again. I mean, you mentioned uh dad not passing first grade at St. Charles Elementary. And uh that's there's parallels. I mean, the Brunos all went to St. Charles, Libby High School afterwards. Um but I'll tell you, you know who one of your dad's biggest cheerleaders was? My grandma.
SPEAKER_00I didn't know.
SPEAKER_02So my grandmother was typical of a lot of Italian Americans. She uh was pretty much swept away from her small town in Italy by some strange guy who came and convinced her father that he had a lot of money. And the next thing she knew, she was in Toledo, Ohio, not having understood a word of English. On airport highway at St. Charlie. Yeah, yeah, off of uh Western Avenue. And so uh she yeah, I don't know if she ever really loved my grandfather, but she certainly, you know, those are arranged marriages. And so when my Aunt Aggie was born, and this is probably 1929 or 1930, some somewhere in there. Depression. Back in those days, they didn't just kick them loose from the hospital a day after they delivered. Yeah, they spent a couple of weeks. And someone named Philomena Paisa stayed with my grandmother at the hospital the whole time and comforted her. And my grandmother never forgot that.
SPEAKER_00As a kid, I probably would have met your your grandmother then because they always, you know, you had all the ethnics, Germans, whatever, they had that international house or whatever they called. It was down by Scott High School. All I do is remember by the AAA office.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00You probably went there too, maybe as a kid. They would have like Christmas parties, I remember. I think so, too. Yeah, I think so.
SPEAKER_02Maybe the ALBA Club would put those on or something like that.
SPEAKER_00I didn't realize though that the family was there on that airport highway stretch.
SPEAKER_02And I saw your dad played football at Libby. I never knew. I never knew that.
SPEAKER_00Well, of course, Libby was a terrific high school at the time. Yeah. It was like a college, uh, you know. They used to have on Thanksgiving Day football games. And I believe parentally uh Devilvis played Libby and they rotated state and Scott versus Waite. But I think in the 20s, 30s, and even the war years, those were considered the champion was maybe considered the national champion in that whole thing. So yeah, dad played football. Uh that was the predecessor to the shoe bowl, I think. I think so. Some form or another. Yeah, some form or another.
SPEAKER_02Yes, you're watching the Boik Brief. I'm Mike Bruno, and I'm joined by Mike Paiza. Uh, we're talking about Tony Paiza. Uh Tony had a long career as the elected Lucas County prosecutor, uh, worked as an assistant for many years before that, served the community in many ways, was really just a beloved figure for those of us in the Toledo, Lucas County area. Uh Mike, we were talking about kind of Tony's younger years growing up, uh, obviously before your time, if he's playing football at Libby High School. I know uh from talking to you, though, that he had to go outside of Toledo to find the love of his life.
SPEAKER_00He was an aviator, and they sent him to Kenyan College in Gambir, which I believe is close to Mansfield. And my mother uh met him, I guess, on a weekend, and I think in a relatively short period of time, not only were they married, but then I came along while he was over in Japan fighting the war. And of course, uh, in those days, an ethnic Italian marrying a wasp, especially from southern Ohio versus Toledo, uh, it was interesting. It was interesting. Although my mother eventually considered my grandmother Pisa, just like her her second mother, type of situation. But you know, it was a totally different game then in that type of situation. Mike, I we were talking yesterday, and I was thinking about the first campaign, which I'm I'm thinking is sometime in the 70s, and I mentioned to you, talking about Libby High School, there was a building right by St. Charles, a restaurant, and on the side, a huge two or three-story building. I think it was Bob Snyder, who I think he eventually went on to be a professional football player, if I recall. I remember going into the restaurant, and I believe it was a Chinese restaurant, and my dad couldn't help himself. He had to go back and introduce himself to everybody and ask for a vote, and they were all Asians, only to the point that the owner called him the next day and said, Geez, Tony, I don't mind you coming in, but please stay out of the kitchen. I've lost all the workers. None of them showed for fear that they were going to be sent back, something of that nature. But I do remember some of those type of campaign situations.
SPEAKER_02By the time I came around, uh, when he had a campaign, it was the Pizza for Pisa. That is correct. That we would put on Dominic Montaldo would be cooking pizzas in the kitchen. And uh Carl Mazurko. Carl, oh boy, now you're taking us way back, you know, to the South End.
SPEAKER_00And it raised, you know, you're going back 40 years ago, it was raising $10,000, $15,000, which was about as much money as he needed to spend, that's for sure.
SPEAKER_02But when we talk about Madeline, your mom, she was really an asset to him. I mean, she was an elegant woman. Yeah, and uh I I I thought she was just the perfect match for Tony, uh, someone that really stood by his side and was just a wonderful person, uh, especially during the campaigning, too, in the politics, because he'd have to show that public face an awful lot.
SPEAKER_00Well, and he would he he loved it. I mean to tell him he had four dinners a week that didn't bother him in the least. But I think at the end it was hard for her, having lost the two my two younger sisters past. I think that you know she just didn't not want to go out to that three and four nights a week. I think she told him once a week, Tony, is enough is enough. Well, but he couldn't help himself, Mike. Yeah, yeah. As you mentioned, uh, I think at lunch, he rarely went to lunch unless there was some type of meeting or whatever. And occasionally half a dozen times a year, I'd come down and walk. He loved to walk from the courthouse over, I think it's I don't remember the name of the church on Cherry Street. Francis, maybe St. St. Francis. Sure. He'd light the candle, and uh, you know, half the time he sang hi to street people and prostitutes the whole nine yards. Because even at, I think I don't know if I mentioned it to you, with pancreatic cancer taking him that last couple weeks he was at the hospital. He really was still doing legal closings and that house closing and whatever. But a young lady came to the funeral home and said, I had been a prostitute. One day I was gonna be in trouble, and he said he persuaded me to go to college and whatever, and I think she was working like a nurse's assistant. So, yeah, he had no problem with he was not discriminant in any sense of the word, that's for sure.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I remember uh Tony and his walks because he he would motor around. It wasn't a slow walk. He would he would pick up the pace a little bit and and and and really get some distance and then he'd come back refreshed at his desk. You know, it when I started in 83, we were still up on the fourth floor of the courthouse. Uh in 86, I think they remodeled some space on the second floor, moved us down into modern quarters. But uh my recollection of the fourth floor with your dad is um him coming in in the morning and greeting us, and he'd call me Dom, which is my dad's name. Okay, you got the right family. Fine.
unknownHe called me.
SPEAKER_02Tony could get away with stuff like that. You know, he was the one guy who it didn't bother me, you know. Maybe somebody else it would have bothered me. But Tony called me my dad's name, you know, day after day after day. Five years I worked for the guy, and he's still calling me dominant. But the other thing I remember about him and his office is that old-fashioned typewriter that he had. Oh, you're right, hand packing. And he would, he would just, and like you said, you know, he'd do a closing here, he would draft a lease or draft a will for somebody. And it was one of those old-fashioned typewriters where if you hit the O, it'd be a circle, there'd be a hole in the paper, you know, the onion skin paper. And he'd rip it off. And that was Tony practicing law. He didn't need computers, he didn't need secretaries or anything. No, he knew what he had to do, and and files all over the floor.
SPEAKER_00That was his. You had to step over files, but he knew where they were all at, that's for sure.
SPEAKER_02That back in the day when they let us practice on the side, sure. Um, he did those types of things and and and actually, I'm sure generated some income.
SPEAKER_00You know, Mike, you mentioned uh fourth floor. Also, you he would take the steps. I never remember taking an elevator with him. He'd always say, Oh, come on, we'll take the steps. So and he went up fast too, that's for sure.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, back in the day, at least when I started working in the process, I'm sorry, when I worked for the judge in 1980, we still had an elevator attendant, Alice.
SPEAKER_01Oh, okay.
SPEAKER_02In the far right elevator. Okay. So Alice would be sitting there uh, you know, 8:30 in the morning till five in the afternoon, yeah, and she'd have a calendar there, and everyone's birthday would be, you know, on that calendar. Yeah, maybe a year or two in they eliminated that position. Uh but yeah, it was a pretty tight-knit group in the courthouse. Everybody knew Tony. Yeah. Uh and then there was people like Alice, and then there were people that operated the snack stand and the ground floor. Oh, I remember the couple.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. I think they lived close. Uh there was a gentleman that was eye impaired. Right. Eyesight impaired, yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02So it was a pretty tight-knit group of people. Going back a long time now. So uh you mentioned Tony really got into interactions with people. I think Tony probably set the record, which will never be broken, on how many handshakes he probably did in his lifetime.
SPEAKER_00I would think so.
SPEAKER_02I I I Jim Bates, every time he sees me, and especially if I'm with my wife, reminds me of my wedding. Okay. And he says, he says, I don't remember anything about what happened on the altar. He says, I don't remember what happened in the reception afterwards. He says, the single memory I have is Tony Paisa standing right there near the receiving line and shaking everyone's hands coming out of J Zoo church. As if he was a member of the family. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00I'll mention that to him when I see him at a Toledo basketball game.
SPEAKER_02I'll have to remember. He says, that's that's my my real only memory of your wedding is seeing Tony, and that was Tony in his elder.
SPEAKER_00Jeez, it would be a half hour. If you walked, he wanted to get your hello and give him your support. And this was an off election year, so it wasn't even then mattered. You know, Mike actually, I think in the five campaigns, he used to average ballpark 85 to 87 percent of the vote. And I remember a Republican telling me I've never voted for a Democrat except for your father. And you know, there was definitely more than 12-15 percent of the Lucas County voters were Republicans, so he he was fortunate to get a lot of Republican votes.
SPEAKER_02We talked a little bit about World War II, and it doesn't sound like he really talked about that, right?
SPEAKER_00Uh no, uh occasionally somebody that would have been in the Air Force with him would be coming through town. In one particular, and I think after he had had a couple drinks, would talk. I'm almost positive they were involved in some type of bombing. There is no question about that. Because I remember my mother one time saying something about, geez, Tony, some people are going to Hawaii, we should go. And he said, You know, Madeline, I've been there, it's not been a good time for me. Honey, let's go anywhere else, but let's not go to Hawaii. So my impression is that in some form or another they were part of that situation. Yeah. For better or for worse.
SPEAKER_02But you just didn't hear it really from him.
SPEAKER_00No, he didn't want to talk about it. Yeah, he didn't want to talk about it.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. That's typical of the greatest generation.
SPEAKER_00No question about it.
SPEAKER_02No question about it.
SPEAKER_00How about growing up with Tony in the house? What kind of a dad was Tony? He was very supportive, but you know, between, as you you just mentioned, at that time you could have a private practice. And so, quite frankly, Monday through Friday, you know, he was leaving the house at seven in the morning and many times not coming home until seven at night. Once he became prosecutor, that changed a lot. Okay. And especially with the two sisters being ill at different times. He tried to spend as much time as he could with the with the, especially with the grandchildren. Yeah. But he was always a very attentive father. Actually, the only time I ever saw him lose his temper, at least with me, is I and half a dozen guy or dozen guys had a bar in the south end. And whatever it was, it had to do something with liquor control or children or whatever. And I remember one of my partners, Bert Cowles, the attorney, sure, said, Well, I have somebody from the prosecutor's office testifying. And she was very, oh, we the prosecutor's office thinks it's a great idea. Very laudatory. Well, I said to Bert, I said, Tony, did Tony clear that? He said, Oh no, don't worry about it. I said, okay, Bert. Well, that was the forget that nonsense. I was called down to the office, as was Bert, and we both received a nice long censuring of he lost his temper for sure. So I think there, I think he had it definitely a temper if he had to use it, that's for sure. I don't know if you guys ever saw that in the audience. I never saw that. Yeah. Absolutely. Probably not.
SPEAKER_02Absolutely never saw that. So, you know, as prosecutors, we got all kinds of cases, and occasionally we'd have to have make a difficult decision on whether or not to prosecute or how far to go on a certain case. And I can remember a drug case that I prosecuted. This was towards the end of my tenure, so it was probably 88 or 89. And uh it was a a stop at the airport, some guy coming from Atlanta on his way up to Detroit, and they busted him, and he had a stash of some sort of drugs. So DEA was involved, and I don't know if TPD was involved or not. I think TPD had some local coordination with DEA. The judge was Ruth Ann Franks, who worked under Tony for many years as an assistant prosecutor. Oh, I didn't really. And so Ruth Ann comes to me as the assigned prosecutor. She says, Mike, you better do something about this case. In other words, they were gonna file a motion to suppress the evidence, and she was inclined to probably grant it and wanted to be a tough law and order judge. It wouldn't look good if she let this guy out. And so she came to me and she says, You gotta do something about this. So had a meeting with your dad, okay? And Jim Bates was involved, he was the criminal division head at that time, and so we said, Tony, you know, this is not a good case. The judge is is leaning on us here. We we need to make some decisions on this case. Uh so we had our our story straight. We were gonna bring in the detectives from the Toledo Police Department, and we were gonna explain to them that you know, we're gonna have to let this guy get something less than the principal charge. And so we had it all planned out and everything, and then we invite the detectives, and the detectives are all rah rah, law and order, and Tony was following them. It's like we never had this discussion. He was just Such a nice guy. He was just going to agree with them. And so we left the meeting. What just happened? But Tony could do that. He could soothe over people. And he could get things done that way. Interesting, yeah. So I I no, I never saw an angry Tony Pisa.
SPEAKER_00Only time I ever saw him in the courtroom. I remember going downtown, and he was very the Pizas, uh, my grandfather had a shoe business, uh, supplies for shoemakers, and next door were the Britzes. I think they had a tire store, tire repair. So Max, and I believe his brother was Morris. Okay, yeah. I think Max did uh Divorces were Morris. And I remember Morris was representing the client, and Tony kept on there was some issue he was trying to say is how could you have gone from Toledo, let's say, to Cleveland and blah, blah, blah. He must have mentioned it 80 times. And finally Morris said, All right, Tony, you made your point. The guy took, he said, well then he obviously had to be guilty. And I thought, ay, yi-yay. It never ended. He just would go on and on, beat it to death. But that's a long time ago.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, by the time I started in the courthouse, Tony was uh the elected prosecutor, and he wasn't trying cases at that time. But we would hear stories about legendary Tony Paiser cases uh and how he would try cases. And I think the the gist of what I heard was that Tony was just a master at jury selection. He was up there, he'd have the conversation with people. He may mispronounce a name or two, but he could get away with that. And people just loved him.
SPEAKER_00I think he had a couple cases in front of the United States Supreme Court. I know numerous in the state Supreme Court. Uh and then I think he I I don't know if it was Clinton or Bush, one of them I know gave him that prosecutor. I think he was the National Prosecutor of the Year one time. But I I I don't remember. Do you remember? I don't know. I wouldn't that wouldn't surprise you too long ago.
SPEAKER_02I left in 1989 and he kept going until I think 97.
SPEAKER_00Oh, 97?
SPEAKER_02Yeah. But I mean, when he started the office, there was just a handful of people. And by the end, it was a pretty good-sized law firm. Oh, yeah. In the end, with multiple divisions that were, you know, that were fully staffed. And so he brought it into the modern era. I mean, there's no question about that. So uh not only was he an effective litigator back in the early days of his career, but he uh was a an effective administrator who uh who got results. I remember certain causes that he that he led um back in the day. Uh there was the the speedway jam was always a big problem. Yeah, yeah. It was always a big problem. And so yeah. He would uh I think he put the kibosh to the speedway jam after a little while.
SPEAKER_00That was a yeah, and that fireworks. Fireworks every June, that became an issue. I do remember that.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I think um was that Anthony Cicerella? Sure. Uh and others. He was another one that was into the fireworks.
SPEAKER_00And then I know on the so-called dirty bookstores. Boy, that was I remember, I think it was the I can't think of his name, the pastor, Tony Scott. Oh, sure. I think they had a huge rally type of situation down in the old Huntington Center or the old, and I think they had nine, ten thousand people were for that too. But of course, now it seems so mild, doesn't it? Yeah, well, dirty books. Everything's on an iPad.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. You're right about that. He also um uh led some efforts to uh keep the community safe and clean. Uh we moved out to uh Sylvania years ago, and they were attempting to bring a nuclear waste dump just across the line in Riga Township, Michigan.
SPEAKER_00I remember that.
SPEAKER_02And I remember Tony's office uh was instrumental in blocking that so that we could live without the specter of uh nuclear waste being dumped uh a mile and a half of that.
SPEAKER_00Mike, I think also, and you may know more than I do, remember Marcy Captor was very instrumental in doing the World War II memorial? Nothing had ever been in DC. Okay. And I believe a Toledoan came to Tony, and Tony then said, let's go to see Marcy. Because if I recall, she and Bob Dole made that come to fruition. Oh, no kidding. But I forgot that. Yeah, I forgot that too. But there was, I'm almost positive that that was a situation. Uh, because I know he and Marcy, well, I think Tony had been Marcy's maybe one of her first elections, her campaign manager, if I recall. And she may very well have been an honorary for him at one time, too. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Well, that makes sense.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, that's quite a few years ago.
SPEAKER_02We've been talking a lot about maybe Tony's earlier years and uh his legal practice and then the prosecutor's office, but he's been retired uh for maybe 25. It's been 25 or so years ago that he retired. So tell us a little bit about dad, and maybe mom and dad, what they've been doing post-retirement.
SPEAKER_00Travel, which he had never done previously. You know, when he retired, he could have taken, I think, almost three years of income because of days that he never materialized, which he just wouldn't do. But she finally was able to get him to not only take vacations, but they bought a condo and spent, he just loved it, going down to Florida, which I never thought he'd like. Uh, of course, down there he was doing free legal and free advice and playing volleyball and things of that nature. And he was still very involved in the community, a lot of different organizations. I did things with them almost 30 years ago. We'd collect the old newsboys. Sure. You know, they do that Friday event. And I may have mentioned to you, I remember one time I said, you know, Dad, the cars keep on beeping. You just can't say, Hi, Mike, how you been? How's it? You know, they they want to put a dollar in the thing and give them a paper and let them get through the light. So he he still kept busy with that. Although he still missed the office. I'll bet. There's no question about it. He he disliked that type of situation. But that's all right. You know, he had a very good career with it, that's for sure.
SPEAKER_02And then he came down with the pancreas.
SPEAKER_00Pancreatic. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Was it uh a short window post-diagnosis for him, or did he survive it for a while?
SPEAKER_00Surprisingly enough, at 85, they said, we think you can withstand the surgery, because if not, the surgery would have killed him. They figured he'd get a year, he got six months. But yeah, it appears even Steve Jobes, I think, got four or five years, which is a rarity. Uh yeah, yeah, I've known no one who's been able to beat that. No. But yeah, he was gone quickly on that. Although, geez, up till the last couple days he was still in the hospital bed doing free legal closings and free advice and that type of thing.
SPEAKER_02Did he pass up here or down there?
SPEAKER_00Here at Toledo Hospital. Okay.
SPEAKER_02Okay. Toledo Hospital. Yeah, I I remember going to the funeral at Lourdes. Yes. Um I couldn't remember the circumstances upon his passing.
SPEAKER_00Actually, Mike, you mentioned the funeral at Lourdes. Uh I can I think it was a day or two afterwards, nice sunny day because it was in June, and I went over to visit my mother, and there was a nice gentleman out in the front yard pulling weeds and whatever. I went in and started chatting, and I said, Who'd you hire to do the weeds? I didn't know you had a weed problem. He said, Oh no, no, it's a friend of your dad's. I said, Who's that? He said, Mike Jones. He used to be the blade political reporter. I had never met Mike. And I said, Oh, geez, I'll go out and say something. Well, and he had already left. But and I thought, what a class act, you know, to come and do something.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, Mike had the courthouse beat so they would have a report for quite a while. Okay. Uh we called him Jonesy. Oh. But uh he's another Mike, you know. Yeah. Those of a certain age, I mean, how many Mike's are there? You know, born in the 40s and 50s, I think it was a requirement. You had to name at least one son, Mike, back in those days. Uh anyway, we're talking about Tony Paiza, legendary uh Lucas County prosecutor, and our guest is Mike Paiza, uh, Tony and Madeline's firstborn son. And uh so let's just talk about the Pisa family now. Um it seems to me that everywhere I go, I run into a Pisa or two somewhere. Somewhere. Uh and that's been the story, kind of the story of my life, even though I didn't grow up in the South End. Um but um like what's the relationship between you and and Frank Paisa, the old city law director?
SPEAKER_00I always called him uncle, but that's because of so-called respect, cousin. So my grandfather Pizza brings over five brothers over the years. And uh my grandfather, my father's father, Toby Paiza, and his brother marry two Italian sisters. And so at one time you had five houses next to each other on Airport Highway. Long story made short, my my side is Tony and a Francis CPA. And on Frankie's side, the former uh city attorney, he had a brother and a sister. So you had next door to each other two Tony's and two Franks indirectly. And you are right. Uh every Pizza that I know of has a Tony in the family, including my son Tony. I think it was a very popular name.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, and my middle name is Anthony, so I I think that was an old rule. Yeah. Yeah, it it just seems like, and and I was telling you now, I live next to uh another Tony Power Francis' son. The CPA, yeah. Uh who's you know, out my front window. I I can see his pad, but it's just it's just fun talking about the intersection of our families, and and I guess it's really the the immigrant story from the early part of the 20th century.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Uh and you said that your family is from southern Italy also. Naples area, as I recall. Around Naples. Tony had a serious job. Um, were there any issues, uh, problems that uh that were out of the ordinary?
SPEAKER_00We were at the house while he was still prosecutor, and my son answered the phone, and he's also Tony Pizza. And the pr caller said, Is this Tony Pisa? And of course he said yes. And the fellow said, I'm gonna get you, something to that effect. Well, they found out that Tony, when he was an assistant, had prosecuted someone for murder or a serious crime, and that he had escaped and apparently was heading back to Toledo from wherever. I can remember it like yesterday. My son, of course, is petrified. You know, somebody's gonna kill me or whatever. Tony was very calm. Uh, of course, she had, I think Sheriff Telb was there and half a dozen for two or three days. I believe they had some of the sheriffs there, and eventually he was apprehended. But yeah, I I know of no other incidents, but that's enough. That's enough uh in that situation, too. Did you say, were you practicing prior to the prosecutor's office?
SPEAKER_02No, I I was not. Um I was working as a bailiff for Judge Glasser in the courthouse. So I went to night law school, worked in the day, go to law school at night, uh, and so uh I got a great chance to see uh the assistant prosecutors in action in the courtroom. And so Julie Bates, Jim Bates, Ruth Ann Franks, Dave Bauer, uh these were people that I really looked up to. And so I wanted to do that. So um so when I um took the bar exam and uh put in, knew I was gonna become a lawyer, I went up and put in an application, and and Kurt Posner was in charge of the hiring back in those days. And Kurt says, Well, there's really nothing we can do now, just when you get your license, call me. Okay, so you know, you trudge through a couple of months and then the bar results come out, and I called Kurt Posner. I said, Okay, Kurt, I got my license. Well, we don't have any openings right now. Well, I kind of understood that. Um then uh shortly after um Judge Riley became upset with a certain assistant prosecutor and then went to Tony uh complaining, and suddenly there was an opening uh in the office. And so I uh put my name in, and Tony very kindly says, Well, I'm sorry, but I've promised that spot to Andy Barone. Oh and I knew Andy because he worked for Judge Resnick while I was working for Judge Glasser. I said, Mr. Paiza, uh Andy has taken a job with the Ohio Attorney General's office. Did you not know that? He says, No, I didn't know that. I said, Well, yeah, he's working for the Ohio Attorney General right now. I think you do have an opening. Okay, well, why don't you come on board? And so within a couple of weeks of getting my bar results, uh, I started in early November and uh I was assigned the low man the totem pole and the uh the letterhead, which has your dad's name at the very top and my name at the very bottom, the criminal division. I've kept that letterhead for all those years, uh and it's almost a who's who's list of prominent legal people that are uh that are on there because I know your dad was instrumental, a lot of them becoming judges. Sure. And Julie is now the successor, assistant prosecutor, and has been for many years, has been very good at that. So he uh he helped a lot of people in their careers. Yeah. And boy, uh I can count on one hand my legal mentors, and he's he's on that hand.
SPEAKER_00Well, I don't think that office was uh strictly democratic. I think there were obviously Republicans or and well, I know there were uh in that office too. So it was good.
SPEAKER_02The only thing I was told was I had to register as a Democrat, and I had to attend the annual Democratic dinner. Okay. That was it. Okay. So I said, I think I can do that, you know, for the job. Makes sense. And uh makes sense. So that's what I did. Judge Glasser was Republican. I didn't even know he was Republican until halfway through my tenure there.
SPEAKER_00It was kind of a non-political job.
SPEAKER_02But uh but yeah, those were uh those were fun times in the courthouse.
SPEAKER_00A couple times in his five campaigns, somebody would call him and say, Well, this the candidate you're running against, I've got some negative. Tony had nothing to do with that. He said, uh no, no, we're running a campaign, we it's up and up, I don't want to hear any garbage and that type of situation. And frankly, a couple of them became judges. You know, Tony's comment used to be, you're better off losing because you've got a hell of a lot more income than being a prosecutor, that's for sure. I think his first one was a uh Pete. Jeez, he passed away, became a judge too.
SPEAKER_02Was it handwork? Yeah, did handwork run out? That was the first tough one. See, I would have been in college back then.
SPEAKER_00Yes, I keep handwork. That was the first. Uh then Steve Yarborough. I remember that one. Yeah. But then a couple were not. Gene Zamuta, who's a judge. I forgot about that. A young guy, Sam Morrison, I believe, and a fellow died recently whose name I can't think of right now. I don't, I think even Pete Hanwerky was still 70-some percent of the vote, Tony. Yeah, but not too bad, not too bad, not tough. Uh I think at the last couple, I think it was almost a situation where the candidate was told, if you run against PISA, win or lose, we'll give you an appointment. Well, if the appointment was a judgeship, I think Tony's best income was ballpark in the 80s. Hell, a judgeship was 120 or 30. And I don't think they had the pressure. It's pretty tough to beat an incumbent judge because nobody knows who's anyway.
SPEAKER_02Thanks for joining us. Thank you, Mike. Uh, again, this has been Mike Bruno with the Boyk Brief. Uh, we're joined today by Mike Paiza, son of beloved former prosecutor Anthony Paiza. And it was great hearing about dad and some of those sharing stories with you. Thank you, Mike.