Man pleads guilty in foot-kissing case

‘I’m not a threat to anybody,’ he said.

YOUNGSTOWN — A Poland man who pleaded guilty to sexual imposition on a woman whose foot he kissed at the Boardman public library has been sentenced to a 180-day suspended jail term, put on six months’ probation and ordered to continue undergoing counseling.

Joseph Colella, 29, of Olde Winter Trail, drew the sentence Wednesday from Judge Maureen A. Sweeney of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court.

The judge warned Colella that if he violates the rules of his probation, she could make him serve the jail time.

“I apologize for this whole situation. It won’t happen again,” Colella told the judge. “I’m not a threat to anybody,” he added.

Colella’s lawyer, Sam Amendolara, told the judge Colella has graduated from the University of Akron and has been undergoing counseling since his arrest.

Colella previously had been charged with gross sexual imposition, a fourth-degree felony that carries a six- to 18-month prison term. He pleaded guilty to the reduced first- degree misdemeanor charge, and the prosecutor’s office agreed to recommend probation if Colella continues to undergo counseling.

A 27-year-old woman told police Colella entered a study room she occupied at Boardman library July 11, 2006, closed the door and told her he had to kiss people’s feet and record their reactions for a sociology project.

The woman said she wasn’t interested, but Colella insisted and she relented, believing Colella wouldn’t leave unless she obliged, police reports said. Colella then kissed her foot and sucked on one of her toes. She pulled her foot away, went home and called police.

The victim agreed to the plea deal and sentence recommendation, according to Dawn Krueger, assistant county prosecutor. Colella has no prior criminal record.