Reputed drug house padlocked

Keep the alleged drug house closed, the magistrate ordered.

YOUNGSTOWN — A reputed drug house on the city’s East Side will remain padlocked, a magistrate has ruled.

During a Monday hearing, Magistrate Eugene Fehr of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court ordered that the house at 37 N. Hine St. remain closed for a year or until further notice, whichever is first.

On Jan. 31, Judge James C. Evans of the same court issued a temporary restraining order declaring the house a public nuisance and ordering police to immediately and forcibly remove its occupants, close it and padlock it until further notice.

The temporary and permanent restraining orders were sought by Ohio Atty. Gen Marc Dann and city Prosecutor Jay Macejko in a civil action naming Jason Pates, the property owner, as a defendant.

Judge John M. Durkin of common pleas court issued a bench warrant for the arrest of Pates in September 2002 for failure to appear in court on a drug possession charge in a 2001 criminal case. Pates is believed to be in Alabama, Fehr said.

The complaint from Dann and Macejko said a confidential informant made 10 undercover crack cocaine purchases at the house within the past year and that police found suspected crack cocaine, suspected marijuana, drug paraphernalia, and guns in raids in which search warrants were executed last year.

Even after the raids, the covert crack cocaine purchases continued into January 2008, the complaint said.