YOUNGSTOWN Missing hearing leads to jail time

The case drew criticism from local and federal law enforcement.
By PATRICIA MEADE
VINDICATOR CRIME REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Joseph L. Sanders has 65 days in jail to regret not signing up for probation on a gun conviction that originally netted him only three days behind bars.
Sanders, 31, of Dryden Avenue, was in municipal court Tuesday for sentencing on a probation violation. The hearing had been set for Sept. 10 but Sanders never showed and had to be re-arrested Sept. 30.
"Without mincing words, he did not do what he was supposed to do," Youngstown attorney Charles Curry told Judge Robert A. Douglas Jr. "The court gave him every opportunity."
Dave Olsavsky, a probation officer for Youngstown Municipal Court, recommended that Judge Douglas impose the balance of Sanders' sentence that had been suspended in July.
Judge agreed
Judge Douglas agreed with the jail recommendation. Sanders must spend 65 days in jail, with credit for 25 days already served that correspond to arrests in July, August and this month.
Sanders was first arrested in July as part of the Gun Reduction Interdiction Project. At arraignment July 7, he pleaded no contest to carrying a concealed weapon, which carries a maximum penalty of 180 days in jail.
Judge Douglas sentenced Sanders to 90 days in jail, suspended 87 and gave him credit for three days served. The judge fined Sanders $100 and placed him on nine months' probation.
The case drew criticism from local and federal law enforcement that participated in GRIP.
U.S. Attorney Greg White said Tuesday that "in the end it worked out" and "we'll see what he does when he gets out of jail."
Because Sanders never signed up for probation in July, he was arrested again on Aug. 21, with bond set at $5,000.
Curry said his client was scared that he'd be arrested if he signed up for probation because of the publicity the gun case had received. Sanders had heard people on talk radio saying he should be re-arrested.
Sanders stayed in jail until Aug. 27, when Judge Douglas modified the $5,000 bond to electronically monitored house arrest. Sanders went home, having earned credit for another eight days served in jail.
Once hooked up to the electronic monitor, Sanders, from the first day, never abided by the order to stay home, Phil Sekola, director at Mid-America Court Services in Liberty, has said. The electronic monitor recorded "ins and outs continually," he said.
Police saw him out
When Sanders was arrested Sept. 30, police spotted him on Delaware Avenue near Clyde Street on the North Side; his home is on the East Side.
Sanders' probation in July was given despite him owing $1,427 in fines and costs on 11 cases that The Vindicator found through a municipal court records check. The convictions, which date to 1995, include four driving under suspension, theft, escape (amended to attempted), public indecency, receiving stolen property (amended to unauthorized use of a vehicle) and more.
meade@vindy.com