Judge orders South Side house padlocked

STAFF REPORT

YOUNGSTOWN — At the city’s request, a judge has found an alleged South Side drug house a nuisance and ordered it closed and padlocked or boarded up until further notice.

Judge John M. Durkin of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court issued the temporary restraining order Wednesday against 542 W. Glenaven Ave.; its owner, Yvonne J. Young; and her tenant, Dewaylon R. Bruton and unidentified other tenants.

Trespassers will be punished for contempt of court, the order says.

The text of the restraining order, written by Jay Macejko, city prosecutor, says the city received numerous complaints about the house between February 2007 and this month. A police informant has made 13 controlled crack-cocaine purchases at that house in the last 17 months, the order says.

Continuing drug sales there “will cause immediate and irreparable harm to the surrounding community,” the order says.

A hearing on the city’s request for a permanent injunction to close the house will be at 10 a.m. Sept. 9 before Magistrate Dominic DeLaurentis.

Young and Bruton could not be reached to comment.