4 plead guilty to reduced charges in salvage case

By Ed Runyan | April 26, 2011 at 12:00a.m.

Sergio DiPaolo

WARREN

The new owner of the former Delphi Packard Electric plants on Dana and Griswold streets and three of his employees have pleaded guilty to reduced charges in connection with the salvage operations they carried out in the buildings.

Sergio DiPaolo, 46, of Isabelle Court, Girard, pleaded guilty to one misdemeanor charge Friday in Warren Municipal Court for violating a stop-work order issued by Warren building official Chris Taneyhill.

In exchange, prosecutors dismissed misdemeanor charges of failing to register with the city as a contractor and failing to obtain a building permit before starting to work on the buildings.

Also dismissed was a felony open dumping charge filed by the Trumbull County Sheriff’s Office regarding debris DiPaolo was accused of dumping at the former Diversified Resources factory in Champion.

Magistrate Dan Gerin sentenced DiPaolo to a 180-day suspended jail sentence, two years’ nonreporting probation and fined him $500 and court costs.

The three workers found inside one of the Dana Street buildings helping DiPaolo salvage scrap in violation of a stop-work order were Richard L. Herman Jr. of Youngstown, John E. Serratta III of Niles and Kenneth P. Foltz of Youngstown.

Charges against all three were reduced to disorderly conduct, and they were ordered to pay a $500 fine and court costs.

Taneyhill issued a stop-work order for the buildings after finding out DiPaolo had purchased the buildings Jan. 26 for $80,000 and had started removing various electrical components without applying for a permit or registering with the city.

Taneyhill said Monday that DiPaolo still has not registered with the city as a contractor or provided the building-inspection department with required construction/demolition documents.