Lawsuit, restraining order filed after drug death

An affidavit says Timothy Wyland has been trying to conceal his assets.
By ED RUNYAN
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
WARREN -- The mother of a 16-year-old Girard girl who died after being given drugs in a Liberty motel has filed a lawsuit against a Youngstown man and asked for a restraining order to keep him from moving his assets.
Kathryn E. Migliozzi of Girard filed the suit Friday in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court as administrator of the estate of Cortney L. Rushwin and as Rushwin's mother. It seeks damages in excess of $2 million.
Named as defendants are Timothy Wyland, whose address is listed as St. Claire Street, and a John Doe whose address is unknown. The case is assigned to Judge Peter Kontos.
Wyland, 38, faces one count of corrupting with drugs and two counts of permitting drug abuse. He has been bound over to a Trumbull County grand jury on those charges and separate drug-abuse charges. He is free on $250,000 bond.
Wyland is accused of supplying drugs to Rushwin, who was a junior at Girard High School, and another teenage girl March 25. Rushwin died the next day.
Drugs caused death
The suit says Wyland and John Doe may have given dangerous drugs to Rushwin and caused her death from acute polydrug intoxication. The suit says the drugs were marijuana, cocaine and heroin.
The Trumbull County coroner's office has determined that Rushwin died of drug intoxication involving several drugs. Morphine, cocaine, methadone and marijuana were in the girl's system.
The suit says Rushwin had pain and suffering before her death. The heirs and next of kin also had loss of companionship and mental anguish, and incurred medical expenses and funeral costs, the suit says.
Migliozzi's lawyer, Ronald J. Rice of Hubbard, asks for a temporary restraining order to remove control of Wyland's assets from him, to protect her financial interests. Migliozzi states that she has received information from public records that Wyland has inherited a large sum of money through an estate and has actively been trying to conceal his assets.
Friend's testimony
In a Girard Municipal Court hearing, a 17-year-old friend of Rushwin's testified that on the day of the overdose, Rushwin and another person picked her up in Liberty and drove around a while before calling Wyland, who was at the Knights Inn Motel in Liberty.
According to the 17-year-old friend, she, Wyland and Rushwin "hung out" for a while then left the motel to drive around, stopping at a gas station and convenience store in Austintown to pick up job applications.
The friend said when the three returned to the motel, Rushwin and Wyland made several trips to the restroom where she assumed they used drugs. Wyland, she said, later offered her some heroin and she accepted.
The friend said she did not see the drug activity in the bathroom, but could hear what was going on. She also said Rushwin did not have drugs in her possession before meeting Wyland at the hotel.