Ex-bar owner accused of drug trafficking

The Poland bar has been boarded up since Nov. 5.

staff report

YOUNGSTOWN — A former Poland Avenue bar owner has been indicted and arraigned on 17 counts of drug trafficking and one count of engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity.

John Messer, 58, of Raccoon Road, owner of the former Riverbend Tavern, turned himself in to authorities and was arraigned Friday before Judge James C. Evans of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court, who set bond at $75,000.

Messer, who has retained Atty. Dennis DiMartino to represent him, was freed after posting the bond. Judge R. Scott Krichbaum is to preside over Messer’s trial. The case is being prosecuted by Martin P. Desmond, an assistant county prosecutor.

Nine of the 17 drug-trafficking counts in Thursday’s Mahoning County grand jury indictment identify alleged cocaine transactions, and the remaining eight refer only to drug trafficking.

The former bar at 1105 Poland Ave. has been boarded up since Nov. 5, when city Prosecutor Jay Macejko obtained from Judge Krichbaum a temporary restraining order, which closed the bar as a public nuisance.

Also on Nov. 5, the Mahoning Valley Law Enforcement Task Force raided the bar on suspicion of drug trafficking and illegal gambling. Police seized suspected illegal drugs and video-gambling machines in that raid, said Lt. Robin Lees, task force commander.

In his request for the restraining order, Macejko said an undercover informant made 13 controlled purchases of suspected crack cocaine and prescription pills at the bar over four months.

Earlier this month, Judge Krichbaum and Magistrate Timothy G. Welsh signed a preliminary injunction keeping the bar closed as a public nuisance until further notice.