Dangerous Liaisons

By all appearances, Cythnia George had a picture perfect life...and as a contestant in the Mrs. Ohio contest seven years ago, she was ready for her closeup.

Cindy seemed to have it all. The wife of a well-known, wealthy Akron restaurateur, and lived in a sprawling mansion on 18 acres, raising seven loving children.

She was proud of her life, and of her husband, Ed George.

Cyndi George first met her husband in 1978 when she walked into Ed George’s supper club, the Tangier, a hulking block-long Moroccan-themed entertainment spot. He was a serious, self-confessed workaholic—a 40-year-old confirmed bachelor. She was 16 years younger, outgoing, and fun-loving. They had in common a devout Catholicism.

After a five-year courtship, the couple had a fairy tale wedding in 1984. Then, a succession of pregnancies, followed by two adoptions. Over the years, the George family—and the family business—prospered.

Phil Trexler is a veteran reporter who works for the Akron Beacon Journal

Cindy George had come a long way from her humble beginnings as a factory worker’s daughter.

She was beaming on stage with a fourth place finish. But little did people know, that behind the swimsuits and smiles, a lurid scandal was unfolding. Before long, it would tarnish the patina of perfection Cynthia George liked to show the world. Infidelity... Jealousy... Murder.... More the stuff of soap operas than beauty pageants. And it all began to unfold a year after that contest with an execution in broad daylight that stunned the police and the public alike. It was a murder that seemed to have nothing to do with Cindy George.

On Father’s Day weekend in 2001, a man drove his motorcycle into this gas station. He calmly stepped off, pulled out a gun, blew a hole into a customer’s head and sped away.

The violence stunned many in Akron. This rust belt city was once the home to the rich tire barons Goodyear and Firestone. Trexler says Akron is now a simpler place and such a big city shooting seemed out of place.

Akron homicide detectives Dave Whiddon and Vince Felber did not have a lot to go on. Other than this grainy security camera video, a bullet fragment and eyewitness descriptions of the getaway bike.

People at the scene said the killer wore a dark helmet that didn’t reveal any features, and was brutally efficient.

Thirty seconds that would stretch out into years of titillating headlines, the unveiling of sordid family secrets.

The victim? 44-year-old Jeff Zack.  Detectives wanted to find out who he was and why someone would want to kill him in such a cold-blooded way.

They learned that Zack left behind a wife and a son, and that he had struggled all of his life to find success. In his 20’s he tried to become a pilot in the Israeli military. Then went on to work as a stockbroker and headhunter, before giving the scrap metal business a try. At the time of his death he owned and serviced vending machines around Ohio.

His mother, Elayne Zack, said her son’s life had been difficult from the start.

And that, she says affected him his entire life—in business and in relationships.

Detectives also learned that Zack had a volatile temper and a police record that included domestic violence and harassment charges and involvement in a prostitution ring.

Reporter Trexler covered the case from the start.

Police found that three days before Jeff Zack was killed, someone left a bizarre and threatening message on his answering machine.

Answering Machine Message: “All right buddy, you’ve got one more out. So you need to start answering your cell phone, okay?”

What did that strange message mean? Had a business deal gone bad? Did Jeff Zack’s temper get him into a dispute that turned deadly? As detectives investigated, they learned something else that surprised them. The struggling businessman had wealthy, successful friends...well-known to many In Akron—Ed and Cindy George.  They’d met a decade earlier at the George’s supper club.

So police went the George’s home the day after the murder to speak with Cindy...a meeting that didn’t go as planned

After that, the George’s hired lawyers and clammed up, and the detectives say the George’s friends and family also refused to cooperate.

Was that the case? Or was the George family — prominent people held in high regard in the community — just trying keep the family name from being associated with such an unseemly crime?

Police continued investigating all leads and learned more unflattering details about Jeff Zack. His widow told investigators he’d been openly unfaithful to her and recently ended a long-term affair with a married woman.

The affair quickly became the focus of the investigation.

It would take more than a year of detective work to get close to the truth and it was a complicated path full of surprises.

Detectives were able to rule out Zack’s widow as a suspect. And so they focused on Zack’s former lover — someone with a lot of secrets.

They’d soon discover, she was a dangerously desperate housewife.

Detectives Vince Felber and Dave Whiddon faced many obstacles as they tried to find out who shot Jeff Zack execution style at a busy Ohio gas station in June 2001.

Some of those bits of information were titillating, especially when detectives learned the name of that married woman Zack had been romancing—Cindy George...the stylish stay-at-home mother of seven young children, the affluent wife of one of Akron’s biggest restaurateurs.

Zack’s mother, Elayne, said the affair was an open secret.

Now detectives understood why Cindy George and her husband Ed didn’t want to talk them. Remember, the Zack and George families became friends in 1992, but at some point, the relationship between Cindy and Jeff evolved into a 10-year affair. When Cindy broke it off, Zack’s mother says, she also broke her son’s heart.

About a month later, Zack was dead. Detectives wondered, could the affair or the breakup somehow have led to the murder? With Zack’s widow already ruled out as a suspect, who else would be so angry? Who else might have a motive?

As detectives probed more deeply, they learned that before the killing, Ed George had complained to police that Zack was calling his house constantly and harassing his wife.

But Ed George had an ironclad alibi — he and Cindy and the kids were at a family wedding the day of the shooting, seen her in this picture. Still, the murder looked like a contract hit. Detectives say they could not ignore the possibility that Ed George had hired someone to kill his wife’s lover.

Getting answers was difficult. Ed George was not talking to the cops, and detectives say he had convinced most of his friends and relatives not to cooperate... everyone listened, except for this woman.

And she had plenty to say.  Marianne Brewer had seen a lot in her 13 years as a nanny for the Georges'. She told detectives that Ed George was a good and devoted father, but Cindy? Well, that was a different story.

She says behind the facade of the perfect mother and dutiful wife was a manipulative, adulterous woman who spent much of her time either out of the house or talking on the phone incessantly. She says Cindy even carried on with Jeff Zack in her own home.

But over time, the former nanny says Zack became jealous and abusive. After a heated phone call approximately one year before the murder, Marianne Brewer says Cindy was shaken up and terrified.

What did that mean, "take her baby to Israel"?  Detectives believed the answer might be a motive for murder.

If this were true, it certainly could explain a lot.  Zack’s threats might have tempted the Georges to take drastic action, but it was just a theory.  To find out for sure, detectives would have to do something highly unusual in a murder case—force the George’s youngest daughter to take a paternity test.

Becausec Zack’s threats might have tempted the Georges to take drastic action, but it was just a theory.  To find out for sure, detectives would have to do something highly unusual in a murder case—force the George’s youngest daughter to take a paternity test.

Because the test results proved what they’d suspected. Jeff Zack had indeed fathered the child, who was born 7 years before the murder.

Still, it wasn’t enough to break the case. The detectives believed Ed George either alone or together with his wife Cindy had found someone or some way to get rid of Jeff Zack, but they still had no way to prove it. After almost a year, they were no closer to finding the gunman.

That is, until a new lead suddenly appeared: an unexpected witness who would hold the key to the case.

Jeff Zack’s execution-style murder had faded from the headlines, and a year into their investigation, the detectives were at a dead end. Though they had come to believe that Ed and Cindy George were somehow behind the killing.

Summit County District Attorney Sherri Bevan Walsh felt the same way.

The critical information came from this woman. And what she told detectives was about to blow the case wide open.

John Zaffino: It was the first time detectives had ever heard the name. He was a 35-year-old truck driver, and his ex-wife, Chris Todaro said he was violent.

Had the detectives been focusing on the wrong suspects all along? Had they been looking too closely at Ed and Cindy George?  Had there been someone else entirely with a motive to kill Jeff Zack? Todaro says a month before the murder, Zaffino had told her about a man he disliked, and had described him as a tall, white-haired Israeli.

Then, when she read about Jeff Zack’s murder and saw his picture in the newspaper, she knew it was too much of a coincidence. So she says she called Zaffino.

Detectives wondered if this new mystery man was the same person who’d left that threatening message for Jeff Zack just days before he was killed...

”All right buddy, you’ve got one more out. So you need to start answering your cellphone, okay?”

Detectives played the tape for Todaro. And when she heard it, she knew right away it was John Zaffino.

Next, detectives hatched a plan to catch Zaffino. First, they convinced Todaro to wear a wire, hoping she could get her ex-husband to confess on tape. Then, they planted a story about the murder in the local newspaper, giving Todaro a reason to call.

Although Zaffino never confessed on tape, there are about a dozen recordings in all. He did sound concerned his ex-wife might turn him in.

Certainly John Zaffino seemed like a good suspect, and as detectives continued to dig, they began finding witnesses and evidence that pointed to John Zaffino as the triggerman.

A co-worker who sold him two handguns in the weeks before the murder.

A black ninja-type motorcycle with lime green stripes registered in his name, the same kind of bike described by witnesses.

Another ex-wife, who said Zaffino ditched the motorcycle at her house in Pennsylvania, just days after Zack was killed.

And she told police the motorcycle’s distinctive stripes were masked, covered with duct tape.  Detectives believe Zaffino had been making an effort to cover up his crime; it was time to make their move.

On September 25^th, 2002, a year after the murder, they arrested John Zaffino. He was charged with aggravated murder in the death of Jeff Zack. The announcement came as a surprise to reporter Phil Trexler.

John Zaffino would plead not guilty and the case was once again back in the headlines. And the detectives called Elayne Zack with the news her son’s suspected killer was in custody.

A few days later, as news of the arrest continued to spread, detectives received a tip that convinced them Zaffino had once before tried to murder Zack.

Zaffino was stopped and questioned in a park just outside Akron, about a month before the homicide. There was an empty holster in his car. Then, a few days later a loaded handgun was found hidden in the woods, and it matched the description of the gun Zaffino bought from his co-worker.

Detectives say Zaffino had been in the park waiting for Jeff Zack to show up, but he never did. It was, they say, a botched hit that set in motion the violent Father’s day weekend shooting that stunned so many in Akron.

But there was still one major questioned left unanswered: What was John Zaffino’s connection to Jeff Zack...and why would he want to kill him?

As if this story weren’t tangled enough, there were more complications to come—an explosive piece of information that police say went a long way to explaining Zack’s murder.

Since Jeff Zack was gunned down, detectives had followed a winding trail in pursuit of an elusive murderer, from a bloody gas station scene to a posh mansion full of secrets to a tough talking blue collar worker with an apparent grudge.

They finally thought they’d found their man—John Zaffino, but they lacked a motive... until his ex-wife let them in on a secret—Zaffino was having an affair with none other than Cindy George.

Police say Cindy, the married, mother of seven, had not one lover, but two at the same time—Jeff Zack and John Zaffino.  She first met Zaffino at this bar in the summer of 2000, and now, a year after the murder, they were still seeing each other.

To detectives, it looked like a love triangle turned deadly.  Finally, detectives believed they’d pieced together the puzzle behind Jeff Zack’s killing, and now it was up to prosecutors to convince a jury.

Up until John Zaffino’s trial in February of 2003, the sordid details of the case—the illicit affairs, the child out of wedlock, the connection to the socially prominent George family—were secrets confined to an ongoing police investigation. But those secrets were about to be revealed. The case would become the topic throughout Akron and change one family forever.

John Zaffino had pleaded not guilty, and prosecutors believed that Cindy George somehow had masterminded the murder plot, but they didn’t have the evidence to charge her. Now, in order for them to convict Zaffino and establish a motive, prosecutors had to expose Cindy’s secrets to show her connection to the alleged murderer and victim.

Assistant prosecutor Brad Gessner argued that a love struck Zaffino killed Jeff Zack because Zack had been harassing Cindy and threatening to take away their child when she ended the affair. Even though Cindy was not on trial, her public image was taking a beating.

Cindy had been called to testify in Zaffino’s trial, but had pleaded the fifth.  Still, her silence didn’t stop her secrets from spilling out.

Her extramarital antics were a source of gossip and shame that affected the entire George family—a husband who was the public face of a popular restaurant and nightclub and seven children who had to go to school every day.

Alysiarose, Annamaria and Antoinette are the three of the Georges’ oldest children. They say they leaned on each for strength.

Up until the murder trial, they say, they didn’t realize Zack was their mother’s lover... just that he was a strange family friend who showed up too often and at odd hours while their father was working at the restaurant. 

The sisters—at the time ages 9 to 17— went to Catholic school and were involved in many activates. As their mother’s dirty laundry was aired in newspapers and on television, they say they often heard unkind comments.

During Zaffino’s trial, the girls say  their mother sat each of them down separately and, with much difficulty, told them about her long-term affair with Jeff Zack.

But they say they couldn’t remain angry at the woman who had loved them and had raised them to believe in forgiveness.

But remember, it wasn’t just adultery. The trial also revealed that Jeff Zack was the biological father of the George’s youngest daughter. Cindy later sat her down to explain what that meant. We’ve disguised her identity for her privacy.

She calls Ed George the “dad of her heart.” And her sisters say the news has changed nothing.

They say they felt very protective of their father as he suffered through the embarrassing publicity.

In the meantime,  John Zaffino was facing murder charges for killing Jeff Zack.  He declined to testify in his own defense during the five-day trial. Prosecutors, remember, were convinced that Cindy was the real mastermind, but when they tried to strike a deal with Zaffino in exchange for turning on Cindy, he refused.

With all the evidence presented—the motorcycle, the guns, the affairs, the taped calls, the alleged botched hit in the park—it took the jury less than four hours to reach a verdict: guilty. The prosecutors tried one more time to get Zaffino to turn on his lover.

The court sentenced Zaffino to 23 years to life. So, a murder solved, a case apparently put to rest. But was justice really served? Not, says Gessner, according to several jurors who demanded to know one thing from the prosecutors after the trial.

Perhaps no one voiced more outrage than Jeff Zack’s mother, Elayne.

For the next two years, under a cloud of suspicion, Cindy George was free to go about living a normal life with her family.

Until news broke in January 2005 that police had uncovered new evidence.

“Cynthia George, the wife of Tangier owner Ed George is behind bars tonight.”

Cindy George was arrested for the murder of Jeff Zack. This time the harsh glare of publicity was unrelenting—a wealthy former beauty queen with seven children accused of having one lover kill another.

Just before Thanksgiving of 2005, four and a half years after Jeff Zack was murdered, Cindy George would have to face justice.

The charges?

Conspiracy to commit murder and complicity to commit aggravated murder.

With her family and friends looking on, Cindy appeared unglamorous and subdued. Surrounded by a team of five veteran, top-tier lawyers.

Just as the trial was about to start, there was surprising news from Cindy’s defense team—she wanted her case heard by a judge instead of a jury a very unusual move.

Now, Cindy George’s fate would be in the hands of only one person, presiding judge Patricia Cosgrove. She says only a tiny fraction of criminal defendants make that request, and for good reason.

Prosecutors Brad Gessner and Mike Carroll had successfully convinced a jury two years earlier of John Zaffino’s guilt.  And now they’d have to prove to the judge that Cindy George was the spark that ignited the murder plot, that even though she didn’t pull the trigger, she was just as responsible as Zaffino for the death of her former lover.

Day 1 of the trial

The case was circumstantial; there was no gun recovered, no eyewitnesses, yet prosecutors say there was plenty of evidence to prove that Cindy persuaded Zaffino to kill Zack to keep him from exposing her secrets—the affairs, the child born out of wedlock, secrets that threatened her lavish lifestyle should her husband find out.

Even though Zaffino had already been convicted, prosecutors needed to show once again that he was the triggerman Cindy manipulated.

Robert Cole, a friend, testified that he sold Zaffino two hand guns, one of them a .357 magnum, the suspected murder weapon.

Then, prosecutors wheeled in Zaffino’s motorcycle, and several witnesses said it looked just like the one the killer had ridden.

Next, Zaffino’s ex-wife from Pennsylvania took the stand. When Zaffino ditched the bike at her house just days after the murder, she says its distinctive lime green stripes were concealed.

They also called Chris Todaro to the stand, Zafffino’s other ex-wife, the one who had secretly recorded several conversations with him.

She told the court what zaffino had said to her after zack’s murder.

Once Zaffino was established as the murderer, prosecutors set out to prove their main point—that Cindy George had been pulling the strings all along. And they turned once again to Chris Todaro.

Todaro testified that Zaffino had told her Cindy George was in on it all the way.

Knew about the murder, prosecutors argued, and financed it.

To back that up, prosecutors called to the stand a bank manager who verified Cindy’s records—on the day John Zaffino bought the so-called getaway bike for just under $5,300 dollars, Cindy George made a cash withdrawal for the same amount.

And the funding didn’t stop there. Prosecutors argued that Cindy also footed the bill for Zaffino’s cell phone. The monthly statements would turn out to be key evidence.

Detective Vince Felber said an incriminating pattern emerged as he pored over hundreds of calls between Cindy George and John Zaffino.

Records show the night Zaffino was spotted in that park about a month before the shooting, Cindy was on two cell phones at the same time...with Zack and Zaffino

Prosecutors argued Cindy was trying to lure Zack to the park because Zaffino was hiding there, ready to ambush him. But the park ranger who suddenly showed up foiled the plan.

Prosecutors say that failed park showdown led to “plan b”—the hit at the gas station a month later. And on that day, they say, the pattern of phone calls appears to be the most damning of all.

And there was more on Cindy’s mind than just murder, said prosecutors. They were about to unveil evidence they believed would show that Cindy’s criminal behavior didn’t end when Zack was killed.

Summit county prosecutors had just laid out several days worth of evidence in an attempt to show that Cindy George had conceived and bankrolled the plot to kill Jeff Zack.

Now they wanted to tell the court what Cindy did after the murder, how she acted like a guilty woman tying up loose ends.

An elaborate cover up, prosecutors say, that began just two days after the murder, when Zaffino ditched the so-called getaway bike in Pennsylvania. Zaffino called a friend to ask for a ride back to Ohio.

The friend testified that Zaffino made one very significant phone call during the ride home.

Prosecutors say Cindy also paid Zaffino’s expenses for the trip and that was just the beginning.  With the help of Detective Whiddon, prosecutors set out to prove that Cindy George also made sure Zaffino kept his mouth shut with cash and promises.

Prosecutors say the Georges secretly passed thousands of dollars to Zaffino before and after his trial to help pay for his legal fees. The detective showed the paper trail—a series of checks that went from Ed and Cindy to their attorneys. Then from their attorneys on to Zaffino’s lawyer.

Hush money, the prosecutors say, that was discovered after Zaffino’s conviction when Detective Whiddon listened to recordings of Zaffino’s phone calls from prison...

During one call to his sister Judy, Zaffino says his “friends” better step up and pay for his appeal, or else.

Prosecutors say it was a threat Zaffino made several times, and there was no doubt at whom those threats were aimed.

Four months after this call, the Georges sent Zaffino’s lawyer another check.

The deal, say prosecutors, was ongoing.  As long as Zaffino kept quiet about Cindy, she would always help him.

Prosecutors say Cindy also promised to take care of Zaffino’s son financially, and that once Zaffino got out of prison, he eventually would run the George’s restaurant.

Finally, the prosecutors argued that Cindy used more than just money to keep Zaffino quiet. They displayed a series of letters Zaffino and Cindy had written to each other after his conviction.

In one, Zaffino writes: “What are you going to do now? You said that you would not leave me here. I could have knocked 20 years off my sentence if I would implicate you. I stuck by you and now I have lost my life...”

And then he writes Cindy should pay for some big legal guns to get him out of jail:

“I need some new lawyers to fight for my life, like F. Lee Baily, Johnny Cochran, Gerry Spence...somebody big that will use the media and win.”

Then, detective Whiddon read the court two letters Cindy sent to Zaffino in response...

“Johnny, Johnie, Johnie, Johnie, I worry so about you...”

...One letter that sounds as if it’s written by a woman still longing for her lover.

“I miss all your stubborn bullheaded pig-headed ways, but most of all I miss you.”

And in another letter, Cindy warns Zaffino of the importance of listening to their attorneys.

“Pray for their wisdom. We cannot make one mistake.”

Why would Cindy take such rash action—write Zaffino letters and pay for part of his defense? Prosecutors say it was an explosive equation: affairs plus motive plus phone calls and money equals murder... guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

But the defense had yet to tell Cindy’s side of the story, and the public was eager to hear every sensational detail.

Cindy was about to get some help from an unlikely source—the man she’d betrayed not once, but twice, a man incredibly who was still standing by her.

District Attorneys Brad Gessner and Mike Carroll had just made a compelling case against Cindy George. They exposed her as an adulteress with a child born out of wedlock, as a woman having not one, but two affairs who ultimately persuaded one lover to kill another.

And now, those high-powered defense lawyers, with nearly 200 years of legal experience among them, were about were about to take on the local prosecutors.

The defense suggested that John Zaffino acted alone, and immediately went on the attack, trying to undermine the testimony of the prosecution’s key witness, Zaffino’s ex-wife.

There was not one bit of evidence that proved Cindy George planned and financed the hit on Jeff Zack, the defense said, and at no time did Zaffino say on tape that Cindy knew about the murder beforehand.

In fact, it didn’t exist. And under cross examination, Detective Felber had to admit that John Zaffino never once directly implicated Cindy George during the secret recordings.

And the same went for those recorded phone calls of John Zaffino from prison...

Then, the defense argued that the court did not get the full story from those recordings of Zaffino’s calls from the prison. The prosecution had played portions that sounded as if Zaffino was keeping his mouth shut as part of a deal. But the defense played other parts of the same recordings to try to show that Cindy was innocent and Zaffino knew it.

And after his conviction, Zaffino explained why he refused to make a deal with prosecutors to give up Cindy in exchange for a lighter sentence.

Next, the defense set out to explain away the suspicious pattern of calls between Cindy and John Zaffino: the ones from the night of the alleged botched hit—and the ones from the day of the murder.  They argued there was no way to know what was said—certainly no way to prove that Cindy was discussing a murder plot.

After all, Cindy spent many many hours on her cellphone with both lovers day and night. And perhaps even more crucial, the defense was able to show that it was Zaffino—not Cindy—who initiated the calls the day of the murder.

Still, what would explain why the George’s paid some of Zaffino’s legal bills, the so-called hush money sent through two of Cindy’s lawyers? The defense said prosecutors had it all wrong. They were merely sharing expenses and information, a common practice among defense lawyers. And to prove it they called Zaffino’s attorney to the stand.

The defense then took on one of the most important parts of the prosecutors case – motive—claiming that Cindy had no reason to kill Jeff Zack...

They’d been broken up for months... and Zack had stopped harassing her five weeks before he was gunned down.

Cindy’s therapist testified that Cindy had been taking steps to end her affair with Jeff Zack  amicably. And even though the break-up was messy, there were no signs that Cindy was capable of violence.

The defense needed to counter the ugly picture the prosecution painted of the former beauty queen...

And they turned to the man most hurt by Cindy’s actions—the man who had been publicly humiliated by his wife’s betrayals...—had every right to be furious and vindictive.

As astonishing as it was to many, Ed George was still living under the same roof with his wife and was paying for her defense. And now he took the stand as Cindy’s principal character witness.

He praised his wife and said he believed in her innocence, although he had no idea about her affair with Zack.

And he says he was also in the dark about Zack fathering the girl he believed to be his youngest daughter.

What he did know, he testified, was that Jeff Zack had become a pest, making harassing phone calls to Cindy, even while the family was attending Christmas eve mass in 2000, Cindy’s cell phone rang.

Once Zack was murdered, he said, Cindy as just as shocked as he was.

Then it was prosecutor Brad Gessner’s turn. As he grilled Cindy’s husband during cross examination, Ed George held his own and stuck by his wife.

If court bystanders were now expecting to hear Cindy’s version of events, they would be sorely disappointed. She decided not to take the stand in her own defense.

In closing arguments, Cindy’s lawyers once again stressed the lack of evidence in this circumstantial case.

But is that how the judge would see it?  Cindy George and her family would have to wait four agonizing days to find out.

They were about to learn if the court agreed with them or if their mother was about to go to prison for very long time.

Because Cindy George had waived her right to a jury of her peers, Patricia Cosgrove had to act as both judge and sole juror in the case... After hearing all of the evidence, she alone would decide Cindy’s fate. It was a rare experience that left her with a new perspective.

A judge is trained to look only at the law, but she says, there is a human element in this case she could not ignore.

It was Thanksgiving weekend, 2005. But, for Judge Cosgrove, there was little time for turkey and stuffing.

It was a circumstantial case pieced together with phone and financial records, tape recordings and letters—all of the scandalous details, the affairs, the child born out of wedlock, the secrets that fascinated the public, were irrelevant, she says.

Judge Cosgrove says parts of the prosecution’s argument were unconvincing, particularly the evidence that Cindy George tried to lure Jeff Zack to a park so Zaffino could shoot him.

And there was no way to know what was said on all those hours of cell phone calls. And what about Zaffino’s calls that were tape recorded? Although they certainly sounded incriminating, at no time did John Zaffino say that Cindy George put him up to it. There was no direct statement implicating her in the murder, but the judge says that’s not uncommon.

Evidence was built around the theory that Cindy George manipulated John Zaffino into killing Jeff Zack and then tried to cover up her role in it.

While Judge Patricia Cosgrove spent four days deliberating over the holiday weekend, there were many anxious people awaiting her verdict, including the prosecutors.

Meanwhile, Cindy had been free on $200,000 bail. She was trying to celebrate what could be the Georges’ last Thanksgiving together as a family.

Finally, Monday morning came. The judge had reached a verdict. Cindy’s husband Ed and several of their children came to court to support her. The courtroom was packed and emotions ran high.

The murder victim’s mother, Elayne Zack also was there. She’d waited four and a half years for this moment and says she was disgusted by the way Cindy acted in the courtroom.

The judge could have chosen to announce the verdicts on the two counts right away. Instead she read aloud from a lengthy decision explaining her conclusions.

But the time it took to read the document only intensified the anxiety in the room. At the moment she revealed the verdict on the first count, the alleged botched hit in the park, there was dead silence in the court.

But Judge Cosgrove made it clear she wasn’t finished.

As she read through the verdict for the second count, the mood in the courtroom shifted.

Cindy sobbed in disbelief. Then the judge called her to the bench and asked if she had anything to say before sentencing. After remaining silent for so long, Akron finally would hear the first words from Cindy George.

Cindy George:      First of all, I just want to tell you that I didn’t. And I know it points that way but I didn’t...

As Cindy’s daughters cried out, the judge handed down her sentence.

There was bedlam in the courtroom as Cindy turned to her family.

Cindy George went to prison with the hope of parole at least 23 years away. She’s never told her version of the story... until now. After more than a year behind bars, she’s about to break her silence.

Cindy George was a long way from home—behind the razor wire of the Ohio Reformatory for women. There was barely a trace of the beaming beauty queen left in this softspoken 52-year-old mother of seven. More than a year after her conviction, she was still reeling from the verdict that sent her to prison for 23 years to life.

Looking back on the past four and a half years, the stories that portrayed her as a vain, self-centered, scheming adulteress, Cindy said she’d been misunderstood—that she’s not a villain, but a victim of mental illness, of physical and mental abuse, of bad legal advice.

Cindy said she began to battle depression during her many troubled pregnancies.

Her marriage, she said, was once very strong.

It’s a question she never quite answered, except to relate this story about Zack coming to her rescue when her husband had insulted her. 

She said her husband spent most of his time at the family’s restaurant... and that Jeff Zack always was around the house.

Cindy said Zack was moody and would become abusive...their sexual relationship began, she said, when he came to her home one night in a rage.

As hard as it may seem to believe, Cindy said she stayed with Zack for 10 years because he terrorized her. Zack would call at all hours, she said, demanding her time and attention, threatening her life if she crossed him.

The threats and violence she described cannot be verified because she never went to a hospital or to police. However, in court, her therapist testified that Cindy was afraid of Zack. And when we talked to the former nanny, she told us said she knew of one instance when Zack was violent.

So in the middle of this mess, why would Cindy decide to make it even more complicated by taking on another lover?

When they met in that bar in 2000, she said Zaffino was kind, trying to help her work out her problems with Zack.

She said if Zaffino murdered her former lover, he was acting own his own... even though some evidence at trial made it look like she was in on it.

And what about the phone records that showed her talking to Zaffino before and after the murder? Cindy said that was coincidence.

So then why did she hide all of this from the police?

And that, Cindy said was her greatest mistake—listening to her high priced-attorneys. She said they were the ones who convinced her to opt for a judge instead of a jury. And they also told her not to testify.

And about the giving Zaffino money to help pay for his defense, which the prosecutors characterized as hush money?

She said even those affectionate letters she wrote to Zaffino in prison were her lawyers’ idea.

Cindy said her family’s support gives her strength in prison, but her children said the separation was overwhelming...

And the children said their father was suffering as well.

So, is Cindy George the misunderstood victim she purports to be? Or is she a master manipulator playing for sympathy? She hired a new attorney to handle her appeal... and hoped to get a new trial with a jury that will see things her way.

The former beauty contestant who once seemed so radiant... was now saddled with a new, decidedly glamorous title—convicted murderer... and Jeff Zack’s mother believed it was a title she’d keep for a very long time. 

But Elayne Zack and everyone else who followed the trial were in for a big surprise.

While Cindy George was trying to get used to living the life of an inmate, her children were at home praying that their mother would be granted a new trial.

Brad Barbin, a former state and federal prosecutor took on Cindy’s case, knowing full well that most appeals are a long shot.

But he says Cindy’s trial was so unusual in the way it played out, he had hope the appeals court would not ignore the case.

The fact pattern? A lawyer’s way of saying that Cindy’s defense team made a lot of mistakes... and so did the judge who decided the case. He says there was no evidence that Cindy was part of a plot to kill Jeff Zack.

Barbin says the defense should never have convinced Cindy to ask for a judge instead of a jury.

And he says the judge should have taken Cindy’s defense lawyers off the case when it was revealed that two of them helped funnel the so called hush money to Zaffino’s lawyers. He says in effect Cindy’s own lawyers helped to create evidence that the prosecution  used against her.

Cindy’s defense lawyers are, well, defensive about Barbin’s analysis of the case... they would not consent to an on camera interview but told us opting for a judge instead of a jury was something they all agreed on, including their client.

They sent us these statements...

“Ed and Cindy George should thank God for the advice, recommendations and decisions of her trial team.”

“From the beginning, we argued that there was simply no convincing evidence to convict Cynthia George of the charges against her.”

Barbin argued before the Ohio district court of appeals earlier this year...

The detectives who had devoted years to the case did not seem very worried.

But that’s not what happened. And they were shocked—big time—at what happened.

Cindy George will not be getting a new trial. In a stunning turnaround, the appeals court  reversed the verdict completely, ruling on only one of the arguments Barbin made. In fact it was the same argument Cindy’s defense attorneys had made at trial—that there was not enough evidence to convict her.

In a 2-to-1 decision, the court wrote:  “What the state failed to prove is why Zaffino killed Zack or that George said or did anything to solicit or procure Zaffino to commit the crime.”

Attorney Brad Barbin was ecstatic.

And no one could agree more than the long-suffering husband, Ed George.

He said it was time for second chances for Cindy and for their family.

But that’s not what prosecutors believed.

And they weren’t giving up. The ruling meant that Cindy George could walk out of prison a free woman. Because of double jeopardy, she could never be tried again for the murder. The prosecutors filed an emergency appeal with a higher court, hoping to have her conviction reinstated. Should they win, Cindy could be sent back to prison, and forced to serve out her original sentence.

Judge Cosgrove still stands by her verdict. She says this is the first time a reversal like this has ever happened to her.

Then two days later, she decided—over the objection of prosecutors—to set Cindy free.

And Brad Barbin was there for her release. He said no matter what happens to Cindy George in the court system, the damage had  already been done.

Moments later, Cindy emerged from jail, emotional but, it appeared, hopeful.

Two hours later, Cindy George returned to the comfort of her spacious mansion and the loving arms of her family.

So is this scandalous episode really over for Cindy George? Freed for now from criminal court, Cindy George may find it even more difficult to get relief from another... the less forgiving court of public opinion.