NILES Police arrest escapee

The man also is accused of giving police a false name.
By DENISE DICK
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
NILES -- Police have arrested a man who walked away from a Mahoning County minimum security jail last month and they added drug and receiving stolen property charges to his list of woes.
Timothy R. Faler, 54, of Royal Mall Apartments, formerly of Vienna, has been charged with receiving stolen property, possession of drug paraphernalia, drug abuse and obstructing official business.
Faler also was wanted on a warrant for an escape charge issued out of Youngstown Municipal Court.
Faler remains in the Trumbull County Jail, and Mahoning County has placed a hold on him. He is scheduled to return to Niles Municipal Court on Feb. 25 for a preliminary hearing.
What happened: Niles police received an anonymous call Thursday evening reporting a stolen vehicle at Royal Mall Apartments.
Police located the car, and officers Jim Robbins and Jaison Holland and Detective Fred Raines of the Trumbull County Sheriff's Department surrounded the apartment while Capt. Charles Wilson knocked on the door.
He was invited in, and the officers were directed upstairs where Faler, who identified himself as Roy Eugene Smith, was hiding. A crack pipe and small amount of suspected crack cocaine were on the counter in the bathroom where he'd been hiding, the officers said.
Faler said they were his, police said. After they told him of the charges against him, he identified himself as Faler and told them he is a narcotics dealer and user, police said.
The obstructing charge stems from giving police an incorrect name.
Faler walked away Jan. 25 from a work detail at the Mahoning County jail facility. He had less than four months remaining on a sentence for breaking and entering, possession of criminal tools and possession of drug paraphernalia.
Faler was jailed June 21, 2001, and was set to be released May 2.
The escape charge carries a penalty of two to six months in jail.