Drug charges
Drug charges
AUSTINTOWN -- Police say they found three plastic bags of suspected cocaine, a bag of suspected marijuana, and $1,277 in cash early Monday when they searched a 20-year-old Greensburg, Pa., man.
He was charged with possession of cocaine, marijuana and drug paraphernalia, and obstructing official business.
The man was arrested after a fight at 3:10 a.m. Monday at the BP gas station on state Route 46. Police found one bag of suspected cocaine and the money when they searched him at the gas station.
They found the other two bags of suspected cocaine and the suspected marijuana when they searched the man at the police station. Reports say police told the man he could call his lawyer. The man replied, "I'll just be wasting his time."
Police said the man also gave them a fake driver's license with the name and address of another Pennsylvania man. His real name was discovered when he was taken to the county jail.
The other man in the fight was not arrested or cited.
Teens face charges
CANFIELD -- Two Canfield teens face drug charges stemming from their arrest early Saturday in the parking lot of a city church.
One of the teens, a 17-year-old Lisbon Street boy, was charged with possession of a controlled substance and possession of an alcoholic beverage. The other teen, an 18-year-old North Briarcliff Drive man, is charged with possession of drug paraphernalia.
An 18-year-old Youngstown man also was charged with underage possession of alcohol in the parking lot.
Police said they approached the three teens at 3:15 a.m. Saturday near a black pickup truck in the parking lot of Canfield Presbyterian Church on West Main Street. The church has been the site of vandalism in recent months, police say.
Three beers, a straw, a silver scale and a mirror containing suspected cocaine residue was found in the truck. The North Briarcliff Drive man said he was the owner of the scale, straw and mirror and that he had recently left a drug rehab program and wanted to go home.
Police then searched the Lisbon Street boy and found a bag of suspected marijuana, rolling papers and three beers.
South Range enrollment
GREENFORD -- South Range School District is experiencing one of its largest jumps in enrollment -- an increase of 30 pupils. Total district enrollment is 1,339. Superintendent James Hall told the board of education at its meeting Monday that he cannot remember an increase as large as this year's.
The largest class is the fifth grade, with 122 pupils, and to accommodate the large number, another teacher will be hired.
Hall said that because the class is so large, the situation will be assessed each year as it progresses through the other grades.
The superintendent is also looking at ways to provide adequate classroom space. He said he expects to report back to the board on the matter later this year.
Embezzling charge
CLEVELAND -- A 46-year-old Austintown man has been charged with embezzling $7,874 over 19 months while working as a union business agent in Youngstown.
Keith R. Sharp of South Beverly Avenue is accused of embezzling the money from the Stage and Picture Operators, AFL-CIO, Local 132, between Dec. 1, 1997, and June 30, 1999.
Sharp is charged with concealing the embezzlement by issuing union checks that he marked "void" in the union records to himself and by writing an unauthorized union check to his bank to pay his March 1999 mortgage payment, the U.S. attorney said.
Two steal pizza, cash
NEW CASTLE, Pa. -- Some hungry robbers took off with a pizza and $80 after threatening a man walking on Center Alley near the New Castle Playhouse Annex.
Police said the 36-year-old man was walking home at about 1 a.m. today when the two men came from behind and demanded his money and pizza. Both were wearing red bandannas on their faces and one man appeared to have a gun, the victim told police. The men ran toward Sciota Street after taking the money and pizza, police said.