YOUNGSTOWN Koliser is recalled as street tough with a bad attitude

The suspect in a cop killing has a long history of crime and violence.
By PATRICIA MEADE
VINDICATOR CRIME REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- A high school principal remembers Martin L. Koliser Jr. as a "hard-nosed kid" who lived in a group home and skipped school -- a lot.
He was destined for a life of crime -- assault, robbery, maybe drugs, said Vincent Procopio, 10th-grade principal at Fitch High School. Procopio, former Wilson High School principal, was assistant principal there when Koliser attended in 1989 and 1990.
Procopio said he was a bit shocked to learn that Koliser was accused of shooting city Patrolman Michael T. Hartzell to death. The educator thought Koliser, now 30, would get in trouble with the law, but nothing of that magnitude.
"I see him on TV [now] and he doesn't look right, doesn't look remorseful," Procopio said. "There's no room in society for him, there just isn't."
Koliser, of Boardman, is accused of ambushing Hartzell, 26, in his cruiser downtown and wounding Donell J. Rowe outside a West Side bar two hours earlier April 29. The death penalty will be sought for Koliser, who fled to Florida after the shootings and was arrested by police there.
Procopio remembered Koliser as a troubled, rebellious teenager placed in a group home for boys on Midlothian Boulevard in the late 1980s by the county Children Services Board. As a 10th-grader, he attended East High School but finished the year at Liberty High School and then transferred to Wilson for his junior year.
Wilson High
Maj. Michael Budd at the Mahoning County Sheriff's Department had several run-ins with Koliser at Wilson. Budd, then a deputy, worked security at the school.
"Marty picked a fight with about 40 black students -- used racial epithets in class," Budd said, recalling one confrontation. "I had to escort him out to prevent him from getting beat up."
His next vivid memory is of Koliser, 18, being booked into the county jail on charges of arson, receiving stolen property and carrying a concealed weapon.
Budd doubted there was anything that could have been done back then to straighten Koliser out. "He was just a bad, bad kid."
Koliser's father, of Austintown, declined to talk to a reporter. His mother, who is remarried, could not be reached.
In high school, Koliser would leave the group home then disappear, just not show up for classes, Procopio said. The truancy meant repeated visits to the assistant principal's office.
"He was in my office so much, I felt he had to be expelled or transferred," Procopio said. "He transferred to South and, as I remember, didn't last there, either."
Court papers show Koliser earned a GED.
Arson
Robert Sharp, an assistant chief with the Ohio State Fire Marshal, recalled Koliser's defiant attitude when, at 18, he was prosecuted for the arson of his live-in girlfriend's car. At the time, in 1991, Sharp was a lieutenant with the Youngstown Fire Department and commander of its arson bureau.
Sharp said Koliser displayed arrogance and no respect for the judge at arraignment in municipal court and had to be handcuffed. He was rowdy, confrontational with the bailiff and acted like a fool.
"He was unruly -- just a punk," Sharp said. "When I saw his court appearance in Florida [on TV], I thought 'he hasn't changed.'"
Koliser had painted "black power" on the side of the car before setting it on fire. He thought the slogan would throw suspicion on someone else.
Although charged with a felony, the arson was reduced to a misdemeanor. Koliser received a 180-day jail sentence for the crime. Other charges of carrying a concealed weapon and receiving stolen property were dismissed.
Sharp questioned what would have happened to Koliser if the case had remained a felony. "Beating felonies makes them feel invincible. They think they can do what they want to do," he said.
In and out of jail
Koliser, who described himself to those who aided in his capture as a warrior and survivalist ("someone who would eat a rat"), has been in and out of jail and prison since turning 18. Over the years, he took a liking to tattoos, which include a heart on his right bicep, M.K. cross on his left forearm and panther on his chest.
In 1992, he received a six-month prison term for escape but served only one month. He had broken away from the bailiff in Girard Municipal Court after arraignment on weapon and drug charges and eluded police for days.
Instead of being sentenced to prison for an aggravated robbery conviction in Mahoning County in 1993, he received probation. As a condition of probation, Koliser was sent to Community Corrections Association on Market Street.
From July 12 to Nov. 19, 1993, Koliser lived at the halfway facility, said Richard J. Billak, CCA chief executive officer. Koliser, who was required to find work, was hired at Youngstown Energy Systems in Canfield.
His parents tried everything but just couldn't control him, said David Bohla, owner of Youngstown Energy Systems. The 52-year-old businessman has known and tried to help Koliser for many years.
Files are destroyed after five years, but CCA has a record of Koliser's stay, with a prognosis notation that he was likely to get in trouble again, Billak said. Koliser didn't accept responsibility for his actions, Billak said.
Stabbed roommate
Within three years of his release from CCA, in late 1996, Koliser was in trouble again, for stabbing his roommate in Salem. At trial in 1997, his wife, Bonnie, testified on his behalf, court papers show.
His wife declined to comment to The Vindicator, even about their marital status. The couple has a young son.
Koliser's crime in Columbiana County resulted in a six-year prison sentence. He was paroled Dec. 12, 2002.
Bohla said he received weekly collect calls from Koliser from prison. "I know his life inside out," he said.
In June 2002, Bohla offered again to employ Koliser and urged the court to grant an early release. The judge, Bohla said, rejected the idea based on Koliser's "awful" prison record, which included time in solitary confinement.
While incarcerated, Koliser had four major rules infractions, mostly for fighting with other inmates, with one classified as creating a disturbance, said JoEllen Culp, Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction spokesman in Columbus. Details of the events are not public record, she said.
For each infraction, Koliser spent up to 15 days in a solitary disciplinary unit. Extra punishment was imposed for one violation, and he spent five more months in the unit, Culp said.
Trade school
Bohla said he offered Koliser employment last December, when his parole began, but his father arranged for Koliser to attend New Castle School of Trades in early February. Based on poor attendance, Koliser flunked out of the Pulaski Township, Pa., trade school, Bohla said.
Tony Giovannelli, NCST director of education, said that Koliser did not complete the course but wouldn't say how many hours Koliser did attend, citing privacy concerns.
Instead of working or attending classes, Koliser hung out at bars every night, and "it was downhill from there," Bohla said. "You have no idea how much it bothers me; he executed that cop. I wish I'd never met him. His poor mother."
Bohla, frustration in his voice, said Koliser's parole officer didn't check to see if Koliser was working or attending school.
"If his parole officer had called, I would have told her that he wasn't working for me and wasn't going to the welding school," Bohla said. "If that woman had done her job he would have been back in prison."
Parole agency's response
Not so, said John Renner, a case review analyst with the Adult Parole Authority in Akron. Koliser's parole officer in Youngstown made more than the required contacts with his employer, Quaker Manufacturing in Austintown, and was aware of his enrollment at the trade school, Renner said.
A spokesman at Quaker Manufacturing, who declined to identify himself, said Koliser never worked there, nor was he supposed to. The Betz Job Service in Salem said it placed Koliser at Quaker from Jan. 5 to 21, when he quit.
Bohla said that roughly two weeks before the patrolman was killed, Koliser talked his way out of a drug-test parole violation by telling his parole officer that if he went back to prison, he wouldn't be able to complete his classes and graduate from NCST.
It was a scam, Bohla said, because Koliser wasn't going to the trade school. "He laughed about it."
Renner acknowledged that drug tests were a condition of Koliser's parole but said the results are private medical information.
Culp said testing positive for drugs is a parole violation but doesn't automatically send someone back to prison. Other sanctions may be imposed, such as substance abuse treatment, she said.
Confessed killing
Those credited with Koliser's capture in Florida include Lisa Ferguson, 30, of Austintown and her fianc & eacute;, John Rizzotto, 43, of Clearwater, Fla. Both said Koliser confessed and showed no remorse for killing the patrolman.
Ferguson met Koliser 15 years ago, when the Children Services Board placed her in a group home for girls. Her group home and Koliser's group home would have outings, to the movies, Lake Milton and so forth.
"He was the only white kid," she said. "He wasn't a bully at that time, kind of quiet."
Ferguson lost track of Koliser until last December, when he began dating a woman in her apartment building. She then saw Koliser with her brother, Forrest A. Rupp Jr., 23, of Massachusetts Avenue, Boardman, who knew Koliser in prison.
"I told [Koliser] to watch his profanity around my kids, and he was fine with that," Ferguson said. "He was a bragger -- always bragging about things he got away with."
Rupp, Frank R. Howley Jr., 22, of Donald Avenue; Jonathan A. Kuzan, 23, of Oakwood Avenue; and Lemar Butler, 22, of Stratmore Avenue, were indicted Thursday by a Mahoning County grand jury. All are charged with obstructing justice. Police said they hampered efforts to apprehend Koliser.
meade@vindy.com