The existence of the criminal cases was revealed Thursday in an advisory emailed to area news reporters from the U.S. attorney’s office with the schedule for court appearances by Sweeney and Rallo. Details about the cases, including the specific charges faced by Sweeney and Rallo, were not revealed.

The Partnership ousted Sweeney from her $500,000-per-year post in January after a Post-Dispatch investigation into low staff morale and high turnover, the agency’s procurement practices and the awarding of contracts to Stenger’s campaign donors. Several former employees told the newspaper then that Stenger essentially ran the office through Sweeney, and that Sweeney said Rallo was going to get contracts because he was a friend of Stenger’s campaign.

That became clear in the federal government’s 44-page indictment of Stenger that was unsealed on April 29. Assistant U.S. Attorney Hal Goldsmith, who led the investigation, said in court that investigators had hours of recorded meetings in Stenger’s home and office, hours of recorded phone calls, and firsthand accounts of numerous people in and out of county government about his pay-to-play schemes.