Narcotics unit boards up crack house in Niles

By DENISE DICK
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
NILES -- Authorities boarded up a South Cedar Street house after a judge declared it a nuisance.
Officers from the Niles Police narcotics unit, Trumbull County Drug Task Force and Youngstown office of the federal Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms searched the house, at 223 S. Cedar, Wednesday night and arrested two people on charges of aggravated trafficking in crack cocaine.
Officers raided the house, owned by D.J. Turner, 53, twice late last year and arrested people on drug charges both times.
"This is what can happen when we work together," said Chief Bruce Simeone.
Clay Street House: The officers also raided a house on Clay Street on Wednesday morning, which the chief said served some of the same clientele.
Simeone, Mayor Ralph A. Infante Jr., Safety-Service Director Don Allen, Sheriff Thomas Altiere and police officers, city workers and members of the drug task force nailed plywood over the windows and doors of the house.
The mayor said the city also is seeking forfeiture of the property.
Judge John M. Stuard of Trumbull County Common Pleas Court issued a temporary restraining order Wednesday, which was served to Turner on Thursday morning at the county jail, calling the house "dangerous and harmful to the health and safety of the community" and a nuisance.
The judge ordered that the premises be closed and padlocked or boarded as deemed necessary by the Niles police, the Drug Task Force and the prosecutor's office pending the outcome of a hearing at 11 a.m. Wednesday.
Christopher D. Becker, an assistant county prosecutor, cited felony offenses at the house from September 2001 through this month in court documents filed as part of the case.
Selling crack: Turner told ATF agents Nov. 16 that he lets four or five people sell crack from his home to support his crack habit, according to the documents.
"I let people sell crack from my home because they give me free crack cocaine," the papers quote Turner as telling the agents.
Turner wasn't notified that the prosecutor's office was seeking a restraining order because notification would have hampered an ongoing criminal investigation, allowed suspects to avoid arrest and placed law enforcement officers at "grave risk," the judge said in his order.
dick@vindy.com