Suspected crack house stays sealed

Photo by: William D. Lewis

Photo

135 Tod Lane Youngstown.

By John W. Goodwin Jr.

YOUNGSTOWN — The doors and windows to a suspected drug house will stay sealed shut for at least two more weeks, but city prosecutors want the building permanently closed to occupants.

The city is asking that property at 135 and 131 Tod Lane be closed for use. A temporary order closing the property was granted June 22, and prosecutors spent a part of Monday morning in court trying to make the temporary order more permanent.

The property has been boarded up and unoccupied since the June 22 order. The court order mentions the Akise Corporation as owner of the property and Victor Nixon, who lives at 135 Tod Lane, as principle stakeholder in the Akise Corporation.

At the start of Monday’s hearing before Magistrate Dennis Sarisky in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court, Atty. Gus Theofilos, representing Nixon and the Akise Corporation, said the preliminary injunction closing the property could not be granted because all parties involved had not been notified of the temporary order or hearing for a preliminary injunction.

Theofilos said he is the acting agent for he Akise Corporation and had not been properly notified about the issue as agent for the corporation. He also said there is another stakeholder in the corporation who was not notified.

Magistrate Sarisky extended the temporary order closing the property for another 14 days. He said the two weeks should give prosecutors enough time to notify all those involved with the property.

Prosecutor Jay Macejko said the city will be getting letters of service to all involved parties and posting signs on the property deeming it illegal to use. Macejko said if the city is granted a preliminary injunction to close the property, prosecutors will then seek a permanent injunction that will close the property to use for one year.

According to a complaint filed by the prosecutor’s office, numerous complaints about illegal drug sales have been made about the property between September 2006 and June 2009. The complaint says a police informant made seven controlled purchases of crack cocaine from the house at 131 Tod Lane.

The complaint goes on to say Nixon was arrested in March of this year at 135 Tod Lane after officers found him with “a substantial amount of illegal prescription pills.” It says officers saw Nixon engaged in the illegal sale of drugs.

Macejko said he realizes closing one location will not curb the total sale of illegal drugs, but he said law enforcement will continue to work until the sales cease.

“We are trying to gain momentum and stay on top of these things at a more rapid pace. When you shut down one of these houses it can spread elsewhere. Just because they go somewhere else doesn’t mean we stop looking at them. Eventually they get the message that we know and it can be stopped,” he said.

The matter will go before the court again in two weeks.

jgoodwin@vindy.com