SALEM Council chief sentenced for domestic violence

The sentence includes probation and anger management counseling.
By NORMAN LEIGH
VINDICATOR SALEM BUREAU
SALEM -- The city council president will have to do community service as part of his sentence for committing domestic violence.
David Ventresco, 51, appeared Wed- nesday in Columbiana County Municipal Court, where he pleaded no contest to the first-degree misdemeanor charge.
Visiting Judge Richard Powell, a retired Steubenville judge, found Ventresco guilty and gave him a 60-day suspended jail sentence. He then imposed a sentencing agreement that Ventresco had worked out with the prosecutor's office.
Besides the suspended jail time, Ventresco's sentence includes a $300 fine, 40 hours of community service and two years of probation. Terms of Ventresco's probation also require that he receive anger-management counseling and that he continue with substance-abuse counseling.
The maximum penalty that Ventresco could have received was six months in jail and a $1,000 fine.
The charge stems from allegations made by Ventresco's former live-in companion, who said she and Ventresco were arguing March 21 at his home when he grabbed her around the neck and attempted to choke her.
Ventresco has called the episode a misunderstanding that got out of hand.
Charge dropped
The prosecutor's office dropped a charge against Ventresco of writing a bad check, a fifth-degree felony bearing a maximum penalty of a year in prison and a $2,500 fine.
The charge, filed in late March, stems from a trash-collection company's complaint that Ventresco wrote a $1,000 bad check in November for services related to his now-closed restaurant.
Ventresco reimbursed the company, which later decided it didn't want to prosecute, said Nick Barborak, an assistant county prosecutor.
Ventresco said he is getting his life in order and wants to put the court matters behind him.
A Republican, Ventresco has been council president since 1999.
leigh@vindy.com