Two face wrongful entrustment charges

staff report

YOUNGSTOWN — Two women, in separate events, have been charged with wrongful entrustment. The charge is filed when the owner of a car is aware that the person driving it doesn’t have a valid license. Marshia Owens, 23, of Commerce Avenue N.W., Warren, failed to appear Tuesday in municipal court for arraignment on the charge, and a warrant was issued.

The driver, Rickia Hugley, 19, of Van Wye, Warren, also failed to appear on a charge of no valid license (her temporary permit had expired), and a warrant was issued. Owens had been a passenger when her Ford Explorer driven by Hugley was involved in a crash Monday afternoon on the South Side.

Elsewhere, Cynthia E. Fleece, 48, of Smithfield Street was charged Monday with wrongful entrustment and was arraigned Tuesday in municipal court. She will be back in court April 7 for a pretrial hearing. Police said she allowed her live-in boyfriend, Anthony Elders, no age given, to drive her Honda Accord last month.

He was charged with driving under suspension after being stopped for running a red light on South Avenue. Elders was also arrested in Austintown in October 2008 and charged with driving under suspension while driving Fleece’s Honda, police said.

He also was arrested in April 2007 in Youngstown on the same charge while driving an Oldsmobile that belonged to Fleece, reports show.