Chiropractor pleads to reduced charges

The chiropractor had been set to go to trial Monday in an ATM theft.

By PETER H. MILLIKEN

VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER

YOUNGSTOWN — A chiropractor has pleaded guilty to first-degree misdemeanor charges of attempted obstruction of official business and attempted receiving stolen property in connection with last year’s theft of an automated teller machine from a North Jackson gasoline station.

Dr. Richard Dustman, 39, pleaded guilty to the reduced charges as he was to go to trial Monday on felony charges of possessing criminal tools, receiving stolen property, tampering with evidence and engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity. The tools were listed in the indictment as power grinders, pliers, pry bars and drills.

The prosecution dismissed the corrupt activity and criminal tools charges, reduced the tampering to attempted obstruction of official business and reduced the receiving stolen property to attempted receiving stolen property. Also dismissed was an unrelated cocaine possession charge.

After Dr. Dustman entered his plea, Judge Maureen A. Sweeney of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court sentenced him to a 360-day suspended jail term and six months’ probation; fined him $500, payable within six months; imposed court costs (typically about $200), payable within 60 days; and ordered him to have no contact with his four co-defendants in the case.

Potential penalties

Had Dr. Dustman been convicted as charged, he would have faced three to 17 years in prison, said Robert Bush, chief of the criminal division in the county prosecutor’s office.

Bush said the prosecution agreed to the plea deal because it was uncertain whether an out-of-state witness would arrive here in time to testify in the trial and because another witness would have been a jail inmate, whose credibility was subject to attack by the defense.

The Ohio State Chiropractic Board lists Dr. Dustman as an Austintown practitioner with an active license, and the indictment listed his home address as Fox Run Lane, Canfield, but Bush said he thinks Dr. Dustman has relocated to the Cincinnati area. Recordings on Dustman’s Canfield home and Austintown office telephone listings said those numbers had been disconnected and offered no new phone listings.

If the chiropractic board determines the offenses of which Dr. Dustman was convicted constitute “moral turpitude,” it could issue a reprimand or probation or suspend or revoke his license, a board spokeswoman said.

Four co-defendants

Dr. Dustman was one of five people indicted in connection with an April 15, 2006, burglary, in which a surveillance camera showed an ATM, which wasn’t bolted to the floor, being wheeled out of a BP station on a hand truck at 6:17 a.m. The indictment didn’t say how much money was in the ATM. Dr. Dustman wasn’t involved in the burglary, Bush said, describing the chiropractor as “kind of a semi-groupie.”

Last Thursday, Judge Sweeney sentenced co-defendant Michael King, 36, of New Road, Austintown, who Bush said actually committed the break-in, to five years in prison after he pleaded guilty to engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity, breaking and entering and tampering with evidence.

The case of co-defendant Michael J. Behanna, 28, of North Brockway Avenue, who Bush said was an active participant in the break-in, is set for trial Jan. 22, 2008. Behanna was charged with breaking and entering, possessing criminal tools, receiving stolen property, tampering with evidence and engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity.

The case of Brian K. Morgan, 27, of Kings Drive Southwest, Warren, who was charged with the same offenses as Behanna, is still pending, but he has applied for drug treatment in lieu of conviction.

A fifth defendant, Shannen Myers, 27, of Westchester Drive, Austintown, whose car was used as the get-away vehicle, pleaded guilty to complicity to breaking and entering, received two years’ probation and is in a drug treatment program. Those successfully completing the drug treatment program can have their charges dismissed, Bush said.