Former deputy gets four years in prison

YOUNGSTOWN — A former lieutenant in the Mahoning County Sheriff’s Department has been sentenced to four years in prison and fined $1,000 after he pleaded guilty to three counts of drug possession and three counts of drug trafficking.

Michael S. “Beef” Terlecky, 51, of Leffingwell Road, Canfied, drew the sentence Thursday from Judge James C. Evans of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court, who said Terlecky would be on parole for three years after his release from prison. A sport utility vehicle used in the drug sales is also being forfeited.

Terlecky, who left the sheriff’s department in 1988, served eight months in federal prison for taking mob bribes while he was a lieutenant, but has professed his innocence in that case in recent years.