Truck driver tests clean for drugs and alcohol

July 11, 2008 at 12:00a.m.

YOUNGSTOWN — David Feliciano, the tractor-trailer driver who survived the crash that killed Detective Sgt. Robert Deichman, tested clean for drugs and alcohol, said Lt. Chris Heverly, commander of the Ohio State Highway Patrol Post in Canfield.

The reading was 0.000, Heverly said.

Deichman, 40, died when his city-owned 2003 Ford Taurus hit the side of Feliciano’s trailer on Salt Springs Road around 3:20 a.m. June 19. Deichman’s blood-alcohol concentration was 0.158. The legal limit for driving is 0.08.

Deichman, an accident investigator, was off duty but on call, required to be fit for duty in the event he was needed to investigate.

Heverly said the crash remains under investigation. Feliciano, 38, of Berlin Center, has declined to comment.

YPD mandates headgear

YOUNGSTOWN — Police officers in Youngstown will soon face a change to their uniform code, a throwback to a previous policy. According to a department memo issued by Chief Jimmy Hughes, all police officers will be required to wear their headgear while in uniform, whether they are on or off duty. The order takes effect Monday.

The memo lists four exceptions: in the event of a crisis situation when immediate response by officers is necessary in apprehending a suspect, when officers are in the police building, when in a place of worship and when dining.

Officers who fail to comply with the order will be disciplined by their immediate supervisor.

The last time officers were required to wear their headgear was under Chief Richard Lewis.

Street opening delayed

YOUNGSTOWN — A delay in delivering heavy plastic-type windows is causing the reopening of a portion of East Federal Street to be delayed by one day. The windows on the south side of the Stambaugh Building on East Federal Street are being reinstalled, and the project was to be done Thursday, said Brenda Williams, the city’s chief building official. But a shipment of less than 10 of the plastic-type windows that was supposed to arrive Thursday didn’t, she said.

The windows are to be here and installed today with East Federal Street reopening later in the day, Williams said.

The city closed a portion of the street, near the building, on June 5 when a window from the structure crashed to the ground with Williams watching.

Murder indictment

YOUNGSTOWN — The Mahoning County grand jury has indicted a 26-year-old man on a murder charge with a gun specification in the June 11 shooting death of a 22-year-old East Pasadena Avenue man.

Damon Damous, of West Marion Avenue, was indicted Thursday in the death of Lawrence E. Anderson II. Anderson was reported missing June 12 by his mother. His body was found June 30 in the basement of a vacant West Glenaven Avenue apartment complex.

Damous was jailed in Akron on an unrelated charge when Youngstown police issued the murder warrant for him July 1. When Damous was brought to municipal court here last week, a municipal judge set his bond on the murder charge at $1.5 million.

The murder charge carries 15 years to life in prison, plus a mandatory consecutive three years for the gun specification, upon conviction.

Kids Kupboard program

NORTH JACKSON — First Federated Church, 10786 Mahoning Ave., is conducting a fund-raising drive for its Kids Kupboard program. The project furnishes Jackson-Milton youths with school necessities that their families may not be able to afford.

Since it began in 2004, the program has provided more than $9,000 in school supplies and fees to Jackson-Milton pupils. Pastor Brad Jagger said the church hopes to expand the reach of the program.

Monetary donations to Kids Kupboard may be made through the church Web site at www.firstfederatedchurch.net. For information, call the church at (330) 538-3936.