Kopnitsky’s sentences total 11 months

The man’s original charges related to making false 911 calls.

STAFF REPORT

YOUNGSTOWN — Failing a drug test and biting and kicking a sheriff’s deputy all on the same day have added up to 11 months in jail for David Kopnitsky of Broadway Avenue.

Kopnitsky, 29, who made false 911 calls to the downtown Youngstown Post Office on July 30, 2007, was sentenced to several additional months in jail Thursday by Judge Jack M. Durkin of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court.

Judge Maureen A. Sweeney earlier this week sentenced Kopnitsky to 202 days in jail for violating the terms of his probation by testing positive for cocaine.

The probation was for making the false 911 calls, which triggered a three-hour evacuation of the post office.

But Kopnitsky also failed to cooperate with deputies in the Mahoning County Jail the day he was arrested for the probation violation and had to be forcibly moved from one part of the jail to another, said Meghan Brundage, an assistant county prosecutor.

During the scuffle that ensued, Kopnitsky kicked and bit a jailer, Brundage said.

Judge Durkin Thursday sentenced Kopnitsky to one year in prison for his assault and harassment of the deputy, but that sentence will run at the same time as the 202 days he got from Judge Sweeney, for a total of one year, minus the 37 days he already served.

In court Thursday, Kopnitsky said he takes about five types of psychiatric medication.

Jim Melone, Kopnitsky’s attorney, said he doesn’t believe Kopnitsky would have given jailers trouble March 11 if he had been able to take all of the medication he has been prescribed.