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Former bar owner sentenced for drug sales
Photo
John Messer
By PETER H. MILLIKEN
YOUNGSTOWN
A former bar owner, who pleaded guilty to 17 counts of drug trafficking at his bar, has been sentenced to 4 1/2 years in prison.
Judge R. Scott Krichbaum of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court imposed the sentence Thursday on John Messer, 59, of Raccoon Road, Austintown, owner of the former Riverbend Tavern on Poland Avenue.
The judge also fined him $10,000, ordered him to make $1,950 in restitution to the Mahoning Valley Law Enforcement Task Force, which raided his bar Nov. 5, and ordered him to forfeit firearms and $5,707 in cash police seized.
Martin P. Desmond, an assistant county prosecutor, agreed to drop one count of engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity.
The sentence is nonappealable because it was agreed to by the prosecution and defense and adopted by the judge.
The prosecution has agreed not to oppose judicial release after Messer serves 18 months of his prison term.
“We’ve stopped his organization. We’ve stopped him. We’ve shut down his business,” Desmond said. “Any future ability for him to deal drugs has stopped.”
“Mr. Messer did operate a bar, and it was kind of wild and loose with the rules,” acknowledged Messer’s lawyer, Mark Lavelle.
“I got caught up in this, and I’m here to take the punishment. Whether I directly had something to do with it or not, I’m liable for it,” Messer said.
The drug trafficking counts pertained to sales of cocaine and prescription pills (Vicodin and Oxycontin). Police said they seized illegal drugs and video gambling machines in their raid.
An undercover informant made 13 controlled purchases of crack cocaine and prescription pills over four months at the bar, said city Prosecutor Jay Macejko, who got Judge Krichbaum to close the bar as a public nuisance.
Messer appeared for sentencing wearing a three-piece gray suit, with a matching gray tie and gray shirt, and black loafers.
Judge Krichbaum had jailed Messer for one day in February after Messer wore blue jeans in violation of the judge’s previous order to come to court properly dressed.