Guilty plea vacated in post office case

By Peter H. Milliken

The defendant goes on trial July 22 on the original charges.

YOUNGSTOWN — Judge Maureen A. Sweeney of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court has granted the prosecution’s request to vacate the guilty plea of David Kopnitsky, the man charged with triggering a three-hour evacuation of the downtown post office last summer.

Michael J. McBride, assistant county prosecutor, asked that Kopnitsky’s guilty plea be vacated because McBride said a postal inspector believed Kopnitsky lied Wednesday when he denied making the 911 calls that caused the panic July 30, 2007.

Kopnitsky had earlier pleaded guilty to inducing panic, and the prosecution agreed to drop a charge of making false alarms.

“As part of that agreement, the defendant was supposed to and agreed to cooperate fully with federal authorities to provide information as to what happened at the post office,” McBride said.

Kopnitsky’s lawyer, James A. Melone, said his client told him he was truthful with the postal inspector about what happened; and Melone said the prosecution should be bound by the plea agreement.

With his plea vacated on the day Judge Sweeney was to have sentenced him, Kopnitsky, 29, of Grafton, will go on trial July 22 in her court on both of the original charges.

David Vollmer, the Cleveland-based postal inspector, testified that he did not believe Kopnitsky was being truthful when he denied making the calls.

Under questioning from McBride, Vollmer testified that a man who said Kopnitsky had used his identity and Kopnitsky’s probation officer identified the voice on the 911 tapes as Kopnitsky’s. Another man told authorities Kopnitsky had used his phone, Vollmer said.

Under cross-examination by Melone, however, Vollmer acknowledged no scientific voice analysis was done to identify the voice on the tapes.

On the day the post office was evacuated, three 911 calls were made alleging that 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 after being told a gunman attempted a robbery and that a shot was fired in the lobby, shattering a large window.

Although a post office window was shattered from the outside, no postal employees reported seeing a gunman inside the building.

milliken@vindy.com