Probation reduced for ex-JFS chief

Photo

Tom Mahoney

Staff report

WARREN

The former director of the Trumbull County Department of Job and Family Services will be released from his four-year probation 21/2 years early as long as he stays out of trouble four more months, a Trumbull County judge said Thursday.

Tom Mahoney, 54, of Girard, who earned $107,344 per year as JFS director before losing the job over a cocaine-possession charge last year, received the decision Thursday from Judge John M. Stuard in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court.

Mahoney has served 14 months of his probation so far.

Chris Becker, an assistant county prosecutor, opposed ending Mahoney’s probation early, saying Mahoney “should be treated no differently than any other member of the community.”

Mahoney, writing a legal brief that asked Judge Stuard for the early probation termination, said he completed his 200 hours of community service, remained nearly alcohol-free and drug-free since his conviction, and continues to receive drug and mental-health treatment.

Mahoney was not completely drug-free because within a month of his conviction in August 2009, he violated the terms of his probation for using drugs, and an agreement that would have resulted in his having no criminal record after 12 months was revoked.

Mahoney said in his legal brief that he hoped to leave Ohio and continue to look for work after his probation is terminated.

“Due to the extensive media coverage, the defendant has been unable to attain gainful employment, despite myriad applications,” Mahoney said in the filing.

County commissioners fired Mahoney in March 2009 after investigators with the Trumbull Ashtabula Group Law Enforcement Task Force charged a temporary JFS worker, Kenneth Greep of Vienna, with drug trafficking.

Greep helped investigators tape-record a conversation between Greep and Mahoney in which Mahoney indicates he bought cocaine from Greep.

Greep was an ex-convict whom Mahoney hired at JFS as part of a program to assist convicted criminals re-enter society. Greep received a two-year prison term earlier this year as a result of his conviction in the case.

JFS assists low-income and unemployed citizens.