Austintown receives $46K from forfeiture

By Elise Franco | July 12, 2011 at 12:00a.m.

Austintown

Money from a criminal case that resulted in a large forfeiture will help the township police department pay for new cruisers.

Kenneth Cardinal and Nick Modarelli, assistant Mahoning County prosecutors, presented the township and police department with a check for more than $46,000 during Monday’s trustee meeting.

“This is for the police department’s efforts in a case that led to a forfeiture,” Cardinal said.

Capt. Bryan Kloss said the money was part of a $93,578 forfeiture by Anthony Jeswald, who pleaded guilty in May to unauthorized use of property after police conducted an investigation that began in November 2010 into why vehicles towed by Jeswald for the police department seemed to go to the junk yard without proper authorization.

“[Jeswald] was basically circumventing the system for disposing of unclaimed vehicles. ... He was altering documents in order to do so,” Kloss said.

Kloss said the $46,000 will be used to pay part of the cost of three new Ford Crown Victorias expected to be delivered to the department today. He said the cars cost about $21,000 each, and funds were set aside when they were ordered in January.

“These will replace cars that have a lot of miles and mechanical issues,” Kloss said. “The old equipment will transfer over to the new cars.”

Austintown has 10 marked patrol cars and two marked cars to carry police dogs, he said.

“It’s a pleasant surprise to get a check for that amount,” said Trustee Lisa Oles.

Cardinal thanked the police department for its thorough investigation.

“We thank you, and because of you, we were successful in getting the forfeiture we wanted,” he said.