COLUMBIANA COUNTY Judge grants attorney hearing over contempt

LISBON -- A judge in Columbiana County Common Pleas Court is allowing a Warren attorney to forgo serving a jail sentence for contempt of court pending a hearing.
Judge C. Ashley Pike issued the stay after a lawyer representing Atty. Toni Marcheskie filed a motion Wednesday afternoon asking the judge to reconsider the jail sentence.
The hearing to reconsider is likely to be in February, a court spokeswoman said Thursday.
Marcheskie was to begin serving a 48-hour sentence in the county jail at 10 a.m. Thursday.
Judge Pike imposed the jail sentence Dec. 14 after finding Marcheskie in contempt for failing to appear Oct. 26 at a sentence review hearing for a client.
Marcheskie argued that she had not been retained in connection with the hearing.
But Judge Pike determined that she was the counsel of record in the matter.
After being found in contempt, Marcheskie asked the judge to stay the sentence until a hearing Dec. 17 so that the matter could be further discussed. The judge agreed. But Marcheskie was about 15 minutes late, saying she had to take her children to school.
The judge then imposed the jail sentence.