Wednesday, July 21, 2010
By Ashley Luthern
Lisbon
The family and friends of a 25-year-old man arrested July 4 after a traffic stop on state Route 11 are confident he will be out of jail soon.
Sergiy Matirniy of Pittsburgh had his bond reduced from $50,000 to $5,000 Tuesday and must post 10 percent of that, or $500, to get out of jail. His trial, originally scheduled for today, has been pushed back to Sept. 21 because of motions filed by his attorney, Peter Horvath of Lisbon.
Matirniy faces charges of speeding, having drug paraphernalia and obstructing official business. He was pulled over by the Ohio State Highway Patrol on July 4 for speeding and did not immediately give officers his license.
The highway patrol called the Youngstown bomb squad, federal Drug Enforcement Agency and FBI because troopers saw technical drawings, cameras, gasoline, a machete and other items in Matirniy’s car. After a two-hour search by authorities, no explosives were found.
“Our position is pretty clear that the highway patrol called all those agencies because they thought he was a terrorist, not because of anything that Sergiy did or did not do,” Horvath said.
He added that Matirniy’s passport was confiscated by officers by the time the other agencies were called.
The highway patrol “claims the obstructing justice charge is on account of his failure to cooperate. ... He did reveal his identity, and that’s all that the law requires,” Horvath said.
With bond reduced, Matirniy will likely get out of jail soon.
“We’re going to try to post [bond],” said Natalya Voynarovska, Matirniy’s girlfriend.
“I’m pleased that he’ll be able to get out, of course. We’re happy that he’ll be able to come home and just take it from there.”