Man jailed for making false 911 calls to get out

The man pleaded guilty to making false alarms.

STAFF REPORT

YOUNGSTOWN — A plea agreement for a man who made a false 911 call about a robbery at the downtown Youngstown post office in 2007 will be released from the Mahoning County Jail on Saturday, after a judge agreed that his 10 to 11 months locked up are a sufficient punishment.

David Kopnitsky, 29, with addresses in Youngstown and Grafton, Ohio, pleaded guilty Monday in the Mahoning County Common Pleas courtroom of Maureen A. Sweeney to making false alarms, a fourth-degree felony punishable by up to 18 months in prison. In exchange for the guilty plea, prosecutors dropped a charge of inducing panic, which is also a fourth-degree felony.

Three false 911 calls were received July 30, 2007, in which the person said robberies were occurring at different locations around the city, including the post office. All three reports were false.

But dozens of police cars and officers, together with deputy sheriffs, FBI agents and postal inspectors, converged on the post office. The caller said a shot was fired in the lobby, shattering a large window.

A post office window was shattered from the outside, but no postal employees reported seeing a gunman inside the building, police said.

Jim Melone, Kopnitsky’s attorney, told Judge Sweeney that Kop- nitsky has already served the 10 to 11 months in the county jail while awaiting trial, plus seven more months on a probation violation caused by the post office episode.

Though the seven months on probation don’t count toward time served, Kopnitsky has essentially served his entire 18-month sentence in Mahoning County Jail, Melone said.

When allowed to speak to Judge Sweeney, Kopnitsky said: “My actions at the time, I thought they were right, but under the color of law I realize they were wrong,” he said.

Kopnitsky said he is confident he will do well out of jail. With medication, counseling and other help, Kopnitsky said he thinks he will stay on the correct side of the law. He will live at the Youngstown Rescue Mission at first and then get his own place soon after, he said.

He will be on probation for two years.