TRUMBULL COUNTY Owner of jail resigns from review committee

The jail review committee reads over contracts and meets with city officials about billing issues.
By PEGGY SINKOVICHand STEPHEN SIFF
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
WARREN -- Tony Carson, purchasing director for Trumbull County, has resigned from the county's jail review committee before the release of a legal opinion on whether it was appropriate for him to serve on that body.
Carson, who also owns a private jail, Warren Alternative Sentencing Program, resigned from the committee last week, said county Commissioner Michael J. O'Brien.
"He didn't give a reason for the resignation," O'Brien said.
Carson was off ill Wednesday and could not be reached.
Carson's resignation comes two weeks after Sheriff Thomas Altiere sent a letter to Prosecutor Dennis Watkins asking for a legal opinion on whether Carson can serve on the jail review committee.
The committee reads over contracts and meets with city officials about billing issues, the sheriff said.
Altiere said he wanted an opinion because Carson has a landlord-and-tenant relationship with Warren.
WASP is housed in the former city jail.
Not accused of wrongdoing
"I wasn't saying anything was wrong -- I just wanted an opinion," Altiere said. "I just thought since he rents from the city maybe he shouldn't be working with us to get money from the city."
Carson has been on the committee for more than a year. The sheriff declined to say why he decided to send the letter now.
Officials from the prosecutor's office said they did not believe an opinion will be released since Carson chose to resign.
Commissioners have said that they were aware of Carson's ownership of WASP and that they would not have appointed him to the jail review committee if they thought it constituted a conflict of interest.
Commissioner Joseph Angelo had said he thought Carson did a "good job" negotiating a settlement in a long-standing dispute over how much the city owed the county for housing prisoners.
Since Carson resigned, O'Brien said commissioners will recommend at the next meeting that Sam Lamancusa, an employee with the treasurer's office, be assigned to take Carson's place on the board.