Tongue stuck to pole

Tongue stuck to pole

PERRY — Township Police Chief Raymond Stone received a report about 7:56 a.m. Wednesday that a child’s tongue was stuck to a cold light pole. The pole was near the school bus stop in the 1100 block of Prospect Street. Stone went to the scene and learned the boy’s mother had freed him from the pole. The chief later talked to the woman, who said she was taking her son to get medical treatment for his tongue.

Rape hearing continued

WARREN — A pretrial hearing for a Southington man facing 13 counts of rape of a minor girl has been continued until Feb. 6. Judge W. Wyatt McKay of Trumbull County Common Pleas Court approved the continuance Wednesday for Louis Ponzi Jr., 47, who was indicted on 13 counts of rape and one count of gross sexual imposition. Two of the rape charges carry a maximum of life in prison. Diana Barber, an assistant county prosecutor, had said Ponzi had sexual contact with the girl, who is a family member, from 2000 to April of last year. Barber said the girl told her mother about Ponzi’s alleged sexual activities and the mother told authorities. Ponzi is in the county jail in lieu of $250,000 bond.

Hearing in dog killing

NILES — A pretrial hearing is scheduled for Feb. 22 in municipal court for a landlord accused of killing a tenant’s dog. Mark C. Trombitas, 44, of Hamilton Avenue, Poland, is free on a $1,000 bond after pleading innocent to a misdemeanor charge of killing or injuring an animal. Police were called about 7 p.m. Monday to the apartment of Durrell Richardson at 2324 Robbins Ave. There they found the bloodied dog, a pit bull/boxer mix, dead in a breezeway. The dog was the pet of Richardson’s roommate. Trombitas, who police reported as being intoxicated, told them the dog had attacked him and that he was forced to kill the animal. Near the dog, police found a bloodied knife and hammer. Trombitas did not suffer any injuries as a result of the alleged attack, police said. Blood was on his hands, jeans and boots, police observed.

Investigating pills

LIBERTY — Township police are trying to determine how a controlled substance ended up wrapped in a $5 bill and on the floor of the cafeteria inside Liberty High School. According to police reports, a school official handed the school resource officer the money containing nine white pills just before noon Tuesday. School officials found the money and substance in the cafeteria while sweeping floors. Police called a local pharmacy to identify the pills and determined that they were Clonazepam, a controlled prescription drug similar to Valium.

Shots fired into home

YOUNGSTOWN — Police are trying to determine who shot into the home of a 34-year-old Breaden Street man with a shotgun Tuesday night. The man told police he was sleeping on a living room couch when he heard several gunshots. The man told police he later noticed bullet holes in the walls of his South Side home. Police found three 12-gauge shotgun shells in a vacant lot on the side of the house. Officers followed footprints in the snow to nearby Garfield Street, where the prints were lost.

Guilty of burglary

LISBON — A man was found guilty Wednesday by a Columbiana County Common Pleas Court jury on a charge of aggravated burglary with the intent to rape a woman in September 2007. The charge is a first-degree felony. He was accused of breaking into a Wellsville home and attacking a woman.

But the jury found William D. Keyes Jr., 29, of Cartwright St., East Liverpool, innocent on a charge of attempted rape on Sept. 29-30. The attempted rape charge was a second-degree felony. Keyes is to be sentenced at 1 p.m. Feb. 22.

Stabbed in robbery try

NILES — A 36-year-old Niles man was stabbed by one of two would-be thieves while he was outside a Vienna Avenue coin-operated laundry Tuesday night. The victim told police he was with his fiancée at Mr. Suds at 35 Vienna about 10:30 p.m. when two men emerged saying they wanted his money. He told them he didn’t have any money, and he and his fiancée went to their car to remove some clothing. One of the men brandishing two knives attacked the victim. The victim suffered wounds of both hands before the two men fled. The victim was treated at St. Joseph Health Center.