Deputies who stole go to jail

WARREN — Anthony Leshnack, a former sergeant in the Trumbull County Sheriff’s Department, said a gambling problem led him to steal $33,000 from a charitable organization he and a fellow sheriff’s sergeant formed in 2004.

Leshnack was ordered Wednesday to repay the money and spend 90 days in the Geauga County Jail as part of his five-year probation for the thefts.

His co-defendant, Peter Pizzulo, who was lead detective in a high-profile 2005 murder case, was ordered to pay back the $8,500 he stole and spend 30 days in the Geauga County Jail.

Both men said they never intended to do anything illegal when they formed the Ohio Narcotics Officers Association.

An investigation by the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation, however, showed that the men used the organization’s money to take trips to Las Vegas as early as 2004 and to pay for cell phones and other items for their personal use.