YOUNGSTOWN Loud music charges to be kept separate

Jamar A. Jones will plead no contest to two of the four charges according to an accepted plea agreement.
By PATRICIA MEADE
VINDICATOR CRIME REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Municipal Judge Elizabeth A. Kobly rejected a suggestion to consider each of Jamar A. Jones' four loud music charges as a first offense.
Judge Kobly said the assistant city prosecutor, Anthony J. Farris, wanted to work out a plea agreement where Jones would plead no contest to all four charges at once. By consolidating the charges, Farris thought they'd all be considered a first offense, the judge said Friday.
She, though, decided to consider them separately.
A first offense carries a fine of $50 to $250.
Additional offenses: The penalty for a second conviction is a mandatory $500 fine, up to 60 days in jail and makes the sound equipment subject to forfeiture. Third and subsequent convictions carry up to 60 days in jail, a mandatory $600 fine and mandatory forfeiture of the sound equipment.
"I said, if I'm wrong, show me. No one could," the judge said of her decision to do each charge independently.
Farris, the judge said, then worked out a plea agreement where two of the charges would be dismissed and the 27-year-old Compton Lane man would plead no contest to the remaining two. The judge accepted the plea agreement worked out this week at a final pretrial.
Judge Kobly fined Jones $75 on the first conviction. She fined him $500 on his second conviction, gave him 10 days in jail, which she suspended, and placed him on six months' reporting probation.
The judge allowed Jones until Nov. 19 to pay the fines.
Citation: Police cited Jones for loud music June 18, 20 and 24. Officers then stopped Jones' 1986 Chevrolet Monte Carlo -- with a vanity license plate that reads "20-INCH" -- again July 31 and issued another loud music citation.
The cases had been set for jury trials next week.
Last October, Jones pleaded no contest to a reduced loud music charge and Judge Robert A. Douglas Jr. fined him $100, which he paid.
The city's loud music ordinance was revamped in February, adding a provision that to be considered a violation, the sound must be clearly heard at a distance of 50 feet or more. The revised ordinance also eliminated the mandatory three days in jail for a third offense.
meade@vindy.com