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Convict given judicial release
YOUNGSTOWN
A former bar owner sentenced to 41/2 years in prison on 17 counts of drug trafficking at his bar 19 months ago has been released from prison to the Community Corrections Association and put on three years’ probation.
Judge R. Scott Krichbaum of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court released John Messer, 60, of Raccoon Road, Austintown, from the Marion Correctional Institution on Monday to spend the next four to six months in residence in a rehabilitation program at CCA.
The drug-trafficking counts pertained to sales of cocaine and prescription pills (Vicodin and OxyContin) at the former Riverbend Tavern on Poland Avenue.
“The time in the institution should cure you. ... You’ve probably spent enough time. If it’s going to work, it’s worked,” Judge Krichbaum told Messer, noting that Messer has no disciplinary infractions on his prison record.
“Once I got there, reality soon set in,” Messer said of his arrival at the Lorain Correctional Institution, where he said his month-long stay in the infirmary was the equivalent of solitary confinement.
At Marion, under the state’s recently-imposed cost-cutting policies, inmates got no beverages other than water, had to pay for their own electricity and prescriptions, and were issued just one roll of toilet paper weekly, he said.
“I’m on the straight-and-narrow right now,” Messer said, adding that he does not want to repeat his prison experience.
“It is truly a living hell on earth. It is something that is reserved for people who commit the worst types of crimes,” Judge Krichbaum said of the prison experience.
Judge Krichbaum told Messer he may not leave Ohio without the court’s permission while on probation and that he may not possess any firearms.
Judge Krichbaum warned Messer that he’ll send him back to prison to complete the remainder of his sentence if he violates any terms of his probation.
At the May 2010 sentencing, the prosecution agreed not to oppose judicial release after Messer served 18 months of his prison term.
Police said they seized illegal drugs and video-gambling machines in a Nov. 5, 2009, raid at the bar.
An undercover informant made 13 controlled purchases of crack cocaine and prescription pills over four months at the bar, according to city Prosecutor Jay Macejko, who got Judge Krichbaum to close the bar as a public nuisance.