Ex-JFS director to face charge

Photo

Tom Mahoney

If guilty of the violation, the former director would have a felony criminal record.

STAFF REPORT

WARREN — Tom Mahoney, the former Trumbull County Department of Job and Family Services director fired after being accused of buying drugs from a former employee, is accused of violating terms of his drug-treatment program and will answer to the charge in common pleas court.

Tracy Hunt, a Trumbull County adult probation officer, said she cannot reveal the nature of the violation but said it could result in Mahoney’s being convicted of cocaine possession and sentenced to jail or probation.

Mahoney, 55, of Oakwood Street, Girard, pleaded guilty to felony drug possession last month before Judge John M. Stuard in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court. But Mahoney was allowed to enter a program that holds off on sentencing to allow him to complete a one-year drug-treatment program.

Completing the program successfully would have resulted in the drug possession charge’s being dropped, and no felony conviction would have appeared on his record.

The Ohio law governing the program, called intervention in lieu of conviction, says anyone convicted of violating the terms of the program, however, will be found guilty of the charge and sentenced to prison or probation, Hunt said.

A Sept. 17 hearing was originally set for Mahoney to answer to the alleged violation, but that hearing will now be reset because of a scheduling conflict, Hunt said.

The Trumbull Ashtabula Group Law Enforcement Task Force discovered evidence that Kenneth Greep, 46, of Pleasant Valley Road, Niles, was selling drugs out of his house. Further investigation, including taped conversations between Greep and Mahoney, indicated that Mahoney was buying drugs from Greep.

Trumbull County commissioners fired Mahoney from the JFS director’s job, which paid $107,344, March 23, a short time after Greep was arrested at the JFS offices, where he worked as a temporary employee.

Three counts of cocaine trafficking are pending against Greep.