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Man sentenced to 5 years’ probation
CLEVELAND
A Canfield man has been sentenced to five years’ probation after he pleaded guilty to insurance fraud conspiracy.
Joseph P. Amon, 64, drew the sentence Monday from Judge Donald C. Nugent, of U.S. District Court.
Judge Nugent ordered him to spend the first eight months of his probation on electronically monitored house arrest, with work- and medical-release privileges.
Amon was one of four Mahoning Valley men charged in the staged crash of a truck into the Mum’s The Word floral shop in Boardman on Jan. 27, 2010.
The other defendants in the federal indictment were his brother, Paul J. Amon, 56, of Boardman; James J. Landis, 56, of Canfield, who owned the shop; and Thomas V. Franco, 39, of Campbell, who purposely drove the truck through the front of the store.
All defendants pleaded guilty to the insurance- fraud conspiracy charge.
Franco was sentenced in February to three years’ probation, the first 10 months of it under electronically-monitored house arrest.
Landis was sentenced April 5 to one year’s probation, the first two months of it on electronically monitored house arrest.
Judge Nugent ordered Landis, Franco and Joseph Amon to jointly make $99,851 of combined restitution to three insurance companies.
Paul Amon’s sentencing will be at 10 a.m. May 22, after preparation of a pre-sentence report by the U.S. Probation Office.
According to the indictment, Landis told Joseph Amon about the shop’s financial difficulties. About a week later, Paul Amon, Franco and Landis agreed Franco would drive the truck into the shop and pretend it was an accident.
Paul Amon, who was a special deputy for the Mahoning County Sheriff’s Office in the early 1980s, was sentenced to four years in federal prison in 1987 for conspiracy to distribute cocaine.