Saturday, June 28, 2003
3 teenagers chargedin theft of car in Salem
SALEM -- Police charged three boys with receiving stolen property after they were found with a car taken from Salem.
Perry Township police arrested the boys, ages 13 through 15, early Tuesday.
The arrests came after police saw them with a 1992 Oldsmobile Cutlass taken near midnight Monday from the 600 block of W. State Street.
The car had run out of gas, and the boys were putting fuel in it when police discovered them.
All three were taken to the Columbiana County juvenile detention center.
Receiving stolen property is a fourth-degree felony.
Group-home concerns
SALEM -- About two dozen residents from the city's southeast side met with city officials in council chambers to vent concerns about a group home for developmentally disabled men.
The home is at 1293 Carole Circle and is operated by Threshold Residential Services, East Palestine.
It opened earlier this month and has four men living there.
Although there have been no serious problems connected with the facility, residents are concerned about having it in their neighborhood, Patrick Morrissey, city housing and zoning director, said today.
Councilman Walt Bezeredi, D-4th, called Tuesday's meeting to allow residents to discuss the matter.
Morrissey said the staffed facility is licensed by the state and is allowed to operate.
"There isn't anything we can do," he added.
Guilty plea in drug case
PITTSBURGH -- Federal prosecutors said Eric L. Hopson, 25, of Beechwood Avenue, Farrell, has pleaded guilty to a charge of violating federal drug laws.
Hopson was accused of having and selling nearly 1 ounce of crack cocaine May 20, 1999. He will be sentenced Sept. 19 and will remain in federal custody without bond until that time, said David S. Cercone, United States district judge. Hopson could face up to 40 yeas in prison and a fine of $2 million.
Accident closes U.S. 30
HANOVERTON -- U.S. Route 30 was closed just east of here this morning because of a truck accident. An Ohio Department of Transportation spokeswoman said traffic was being detoured onto state Route 172 and state Route 9. No details were available from the Lisbon post of the Ohio State Highway Patrol because troopers were still at the scene.
Business, owner robbed
GROVE CITY, Pa. -- Pennsylvania State Police said a gunman took an undisclosed amount of money from Brewmeister Distributors at the intersection of Irishtown Road and Pa. Route 58 in Pine Township.
Police said a man wearing a ski mask entered the business around 9 p.m. Monday, took money from the cash register and office, took the owner's wallet and then put him in a cooler before fleeing north on Irishtown Road. The gunman is believed to be a white man in his mid-20s and about 6 feet tall.
Sentenced for child porn
PITTSBURGH -- Gerald Goebert, 49, of Pittsburgh has been sentenced to 27 months in federal prison followed by three years of parole for possession of child pornography allegedly produced by a Grove City man.
Goebert pleaded guilty to the charge in March and was sentenced Tuesday by William L. Standish, senior U.S. district judge.
He was accused of possessing three nude photographs of a minor and converting them into computer graphic files.
Prosecutors said those photos were made by Richard Carroll, 37, of Irishtown Road, Grove City.
A federal grand jury indicted Carroll on charges of sexual exploitation of a minor and production of child pornography. Prosecutors said he sexually molested and took nude photographs of a minor between December 1999 and May 2000.