Drug house to remain closed

By Peter H. Milliken

milliken@vindy.com

YOUNGSTOWN

A North Side residence the city prosecutor said was a drug house will remain boarded up for at least the next 30 days until a court hearing on it occurs.

City Prosecutor Jay Macejko, who filed the complaint against the house, and Atty. Thomas E. Zena, who represents former occupants of the house at 489 Francisca Ave., agreed Wednesday that the former occupants would be allowed into the house to retrieve their possessions under police supervision before the house is again boarded up.

After they recover their clothing, furniture and other possessions, Macejko said: “It’s my intention that these individuals never return to that property. ...There will be no more drug-dealing in that neighborhood from 489 Francisca.”

A court hearing on Macejko’s request for a permanent injunction to keep the house closed for at least a year, which was to have been Wednesday before Magistrate Eugene J. Fehr of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court, has been postponed for at least 30 days.

The house has been boarded up since Dec. 22 under a temporary restraining order issued that day by Judge James C. Evans against former occupants: Michelle L. Burkes; her brother, Jonathan D. Gibson; and an unidentified tenant.

Macejko, who filed the civil-nuisance abatement complaint against the house, said the agreement satisfies him because no more of the drug activity he alleges can occur at that house.

Having just recently begun representing the former occupants, Zena said the agreement gives him the time he needs to familiarize himself with the case.

“Given what the state has filed and the complexity of the complaint and everything, this thing has to be properly researched and prepared. There’s no way to do that in a matter of [a few] hours,” Zena said.

Macejko’s request for the restraining order said the city has received numerous complaints about illegal activities, especially drug activity, at the house since 2008.

Police executed search warrants there on three occasions and found guns and illegal drugs or drug paraphernalia, the document said.