Ex-jail guard pleads innocent to trafficking

YOUNGSTOWN — A former corrections officer at the juvenile detention center has pleaded innocent to three counts of cocaine trafficking.

Robert G. Anderson, 36, of North Bruce Street, was arraigned Friday before Judge Timothy E. Franken of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court, who set bond at $50,000.

Anderson, who appeared in court in a county jail uniform, was fired Thursday from his job at the county’s Martin P. Joyce Juvenile Justice Center after his Wednesday arrest on a secret indictment. The offenses are alleged to have occurred in fall 2006, but not at JJC, police said. If convicted on all counts, Anderson faces two to 18 years in prison.

On behalf of Robert Duffrin, the assistant county prosecutor who will try the case, Kasey Shidel, assistant county prosecutor, called for a $100,000 bond.

But Anderson’s lawyer, Ross Douglas, argued successfully for $50,000. Douglas told the judge his client had no prior criminal record, has strong local family ties, and that the authorities apparently had no urgency in this case because the last crime allegedly occurred more than a year ago.

As a condition of his bond, Judge Franken ordered Anderson to stay away from JJC.