Youngstown firefighter free on bond

There was no indictment on a drug trafficking charge filed in Cincinnati in 2003.

YOUNGSTOWN — A city firefighter is free on $10,000 bond in a drug trafficking case and at risk of losing the job he loves.

“I’m disappointed. He seemed like a good young man who really loved the job,” Fire Chief John J. O’Neill Jr. said Tuesday of 26-year-old Andre “Dre” Johnson. “This is something that can’t be ignored or taken lightly.”

More than a pound of marijuana was found inside Johnson’s North Fruit Street home after he was shot in the face, stomach and leg Nov. 14.

Detectives believe Stefin Gantt, 20, of Warren shot Johnson after going to the off-duty firefighter’s East Side house to buy drugs. Gantt’s felonious assault charge has been bound over to a Mahoning County grand jury.

Johnson was video-arraigned Tuesday in municipal court on a charge of aggravated drug trafficking. Judge Robert P. Milich set bond at $10,000. The bond was posted, and Johnson is due back in court Dec. 27 for a preliminary hearing. If convicted, he faces up to 18 months in prison.

The firefighter’s mother and grandmother sat quietly in the gallery for the arraignment. They had no comment afterward.

During the arraignment, Pete Klimis, assistant city prosecutor, told the judge that Johnson once had a drug trafficking case in Hamilton County that was no-billed by a grand jury. The term means the grand jury declined to indict.

Records show the charge was filed in October 2003. At the time, Johnson’s address was in Cincinnati. In August 2003, also in Hamilton County, he received a 30-day suspended jail sentence and one year’s probation for a criminal trespass conviction, records show.

O’Neill said that his department was aware of the previous drug charge and that it had been no-billed. Johnson was hired in June 2006.

“From his references and the people on the job who knew him, everyone said he was a nice kid and would be a great hire,” the fire chief said Tuesday. “If I had to do it over, maybe learn for the future that if they have a blemish it puts them way down in the pecking order. I thought the job would be his career.”

Johnson, who was hospitalized until Nov. 20, can use up about two more weeks’ sick time and then go off the payroll, the chief has said.

The firefighter, who faces administrative charges, is expected to have a pre-disciplinary hearing early next week with an impartial hearing officer. The punishment could be termination.

O’Neill, who has been with the department 23 years and chief for the past 10 years, doesn’t recall any other firefighters being charged with drug trafficking.