Friday, January 27, 2006
Prosecutors will recommend a four-year prison sentence.
By DEBORA SHAULIS
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- The Mahoning County Prosecutor's Office opposes judicial release for a city man who has admitted making threatening telephone calls to a judge's home in April 2005.
Kenneth Favors, 51, of West Delason Avenue, pleaded guilty Thursday to intimidation, retaliation and two counts of telecommunications harassment before visiting Judge Thomas P. Curran of Cuyahoga County.
Favors was charged with calling the home of Judge R. Scott Krichbaum of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court twice from the county jail, and threatening to kill the judge and his wife. Favors was being held on a charge of breaking and entering.
Sentence
Favors will be sentenced March 7 on the threat plea.
Atty. Tim Franken, assistant prosecutor and chief of the office's criminal division, said a four-year prison sentence will be recommended. Favors faces a maximum sentence of 10 years, Franken said.
Judge Curran said he would consider granting judicial release to Favors after six months if he serves his time without incident.
"We were on record as opposing that," Franken said. Judge Krichbaum was "outraged," he added.
Judge Krichbaum did not return calls seeking comment.
County Prosecutor Paul J. Gains said Judge Krichbaum disagrees with Judge Curran's opinion that the two telephone harassment counts -- one a fifth-degree felony, the other a first-degree misdemeanor -- should be merged for purposes of sentencing. Judge Krichbaum believes Favors should receive consecutive sentences on both counts, Gains said.
shaulis@vindy.com