Man found guilty of public indecency

YOUNGSTOWN -- Willie J. Bland, 42, of Boardman has been found guilty of public indecency and will be sentenced May 17.
Bland had been accused of masturbating in his car while two women looked on from their car at a red light downtown in April 2003.
The defendant waived his right to a jury trial and let a judge decide the case in a trial last December.
Municipal Judge Robert P. Milich reviewed the trial transcript before rendering a decision last week. The judge has ordered a presentence investigation.
Bland was convicted of a similar charge in Boardman in 1999, according to Vindicator files. Last May, Boardman High School officials told the newspaper that Bland, who had lent his basketball expertise to the girls' basketball team, was no longer permitted to do so. Bland's daughter was a star player on the girls' basketball team.
The elder Bland played for the former Youngstown Pride professional basketball team in the now-defunct World Basketball League that operated from 1988 to 1992.