43
Drug charges net man 4-year prison sentence
By John W. GOODWIN JR.
YOUNGSTOWN
A Struthers man convicted of selling drugs out of a once-popular tavern will spend the next four years in prison.
Robert Pagan, 41, of Parkcliff Avenue, appeared for sentencing Wednesday before Judge Maureen Sweeney of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court. Pagan previously had pleaded guilty to nine counts of cocaine trafficking and one count of engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity in a plea agreement with prosecutors.
Martin P. Desmond, an assistant county prosecutor, as part of the plea agreement between Pagan and the state, recommended a 31/2-year prison term.
Judge Sweeney handed down a sentence slightly longer than that recommended by prosecutors. The judge ordered Pagan to serve four years in prison and have his driver’s license suspended for six months.
Desmond told the court Pagan had no prior criminal history but that the prison term is warranted because Pagan was participating in a criminal enterprise.
He said Pagan’s boss, John Messer, 59, of Raccoon Road, Austintown, would supply Pagan with drugs, and Pagan would then sell the illegal substances at the Riverbend Tavern on Poland Avenue.
“Given the fact that this was an organization of sorts, the 31/2 years incarceration is appropriate,” Desmond said.
Atty. Thaddeus Wexler, representing Pagan, told the judge his client’s actions were the result of a personal addiction to drugs. He asked the judge, before sentencing, for leniency.
“We are respectfully requesting that the court make it an appropriate sentence based on the fact that this is his first conviction. He knows he must go to prison, but we are asking for the least amount of time possible,” Wexler said.
Pagan, speaking about the drug sales, told the court he had done the wrong thing but did so to support his family. He reminded the court that he has stayed away from trouble since being arrested.
In May, Judge R. Scott Krichbaum sentenced Pagan’s co-defendant, Messer, who owned the bar, to 41/2 years in prison.
Messer pleaded guilty to 17 counts of drug trafficking at the bar, which was boarded up as a public nuisance when police raided the establishment last Nov. 5.