WARREN Former landfill owner gets more jail time

He finished serving a six-month jail sentence last month.
By PEGGY SINKOVICH
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
WARREN -- The former owner of a landfill, who has just finished serving six months for operating a disposal facility without a permit, has now been sentenced to 11 months in prison for a breaking and entering conviction.
Richard Scott Watts was sentenced Thursday to the prison term by Judge W. Wyatt McKay of Trumbull County Common Pleas Court.
The judge ordered Watts be taken to the Lorain Correctional Institution as soon as possible.
Watts pleaded guilty in December to operating a disposal facility without a permit and breaking and entering. Watts began serving his six month jail sentence on that charge in January and was released last month, officials said.
Atty. J. Walter Dragelevich, who represents Watts, asked the judge to defer sentencing Watts on the felony charge of breaking and entering until the completion of the six-month county jail term.
Court officials said Watts would not be eligible for any programs at the jail, such as being a trustee, if he had been sentenced on both charges in January. Jail officials said inmates who are serving a sentence at the jail and then have to serve another sentence at another facility are not able to take part in special programs.
Atty. Diane Barber, an assistant Trumbull County prosecutor, said Watts did not have the proper permits to operate Watts Roll-Off, a landfill in Warren Township.
Another crime: Watts also admitted breaking into Caesar's Italian Restaurant, West Market Street, on Sept. 11. Police said Watts tried to get money from the cash register but couldn't get it open.
In exchange for his guilty plea, authorities dismissed four charges of illegal open dumping, four counts of operating a solid waste facility without a license, and a charge each of petty theft, possession of criminal tools and criminal damaging.