Man gets 5 years’ probation for nine felonies

Staff report

WARREN

LaShawn Ziegler, former operator of two controversial city taverns, has been sentenced to five years’ probation and ordered to pay $5,000 in fines and forfeit $13,123 on nine felony charges related to automobiles and drugs.

Ziegler, 38, of North Park Avenue, also will lose his driver’s license for six months and be required to pay the cost of his intensive-supervision probation.

If he fails to abide by the conditions of his probation, he could go to prison for three years, Judge W. Wyatt McKay told him during the sentencing in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court.

Ziegler pleaded guilty last month to two counts of receiving stolen property, three counts of tampering with records, and single counts of falsification, marijuana possession and marijuana trafficking.

Five of the nine charges stem from a BMW automobile Ziegler reported stolen in Youngstown on Feb. 8, 2008. Ziegler claimed to have paid $9,000 for the car but reported it worth $35,000 when he filed an insurance claim, prosecutors said. Ziegler also fraudulently obtained an Ohio title for the car, prosecutors said.

Police found the BMW at Ziegler’s home on Parkwood Drive Northwest when they went there with a search warrant in March 2008.

They also found a 2007 Chevrolet Corvette there for which Ziegler had obtained a fraudulent Ohio title, prosecutors said.

Police also found marijuana, firearms and $13,123 in cash in the home.

Ziegler owned the 77 Soul nightclub on Youngstown Road, which was closed for building violations, and later ran Benji Brown’s Bar and Grill on North Park Avenue, which was raided in April 2008 and found to be operating with no liquor permit.