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Judge Krichbaum assails 4 who shirked Mahoning jury call
YOUNGSTOWN
Four no-show candidates for grand-jury service, including Youngstown Police Officer Sonia Moore, got the choice of serving 10 days in jail or coming to court every Thursday morning through August. They all chose the latter.
Judge R. Scott Krichbaum of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court, who is overseeing the grand jury during the May 1 to Aug. 31 term, ordered the deputy sheriffs to apprehend the four and deliver them immediately to his court after they failed to show up for grand jury duty May 3.
“All four of those people would have been a part of this grand jury. They were served. They ignored a court order,” Judge Krichbaum said. “It’s not fair. It’s not right. It’s not legal.
“The other people who were summonsed to appear and properly showed up have to come every Thursday morning for four months” for grand-jury service, the judge noted.
“The statutes of the state of Ohio require them to serve. They require me to impose that duty upon them,” he added.
“We absolutely have to ensure that people understand and honor the obligation to serve,” he said. “We have no ability to administer justice without the active participation of our citizenry.”
The grand jury meets in secret to hear case presentations from prosecutors and decide which defendants should be indicted on criminal charges. Those who are indicted are then entitled to a trial. Grand jurors and trial jurors are drawn from the same pool of candidates.
A city police officer since April 1993, Moore, 49, of Youngstown, logs evidence in the police-records division. The other three who failed to appear May 3 were Vonda L. Lett, 55, of Youngstown, and Effie Pellice, 58, and Steven A. Vines, 52, both of Struthers.
Lt. Brian Butler, chief of the police department’s internal-affairs division, said he is launching an investigation into Moore’s conduct to determine whether it was unbecoming of a police officer. Such investigations usually take a few weeks to complete, he said.
“They’re expected to hold themselves to a higher standard, and we hold them to a higher standard” than the rest of the population, Butler said of police officers.
He added, however, “We afford the officers due process,” including the opportunity to respond in writing to any allegations against them and explain the reasons for their conduct. If they face disciplinary action resulting in monetary loss, such as a fine or suspension, officers are entitled to a hearing, he added.
Butler said the allegations against Moore are uncharacteristic of her and that he is not aware of any past departmental disciplinary actions against her.
Sheriff Randall Wellington said Pellice went to Judge Krichbaum’s court on her own, but deputies transported the other three to court because they did not have transportation. None of the four was arrested, Wellington said.
The judge had ordered the prospective grand jurors to show cause why they should not be held in contempt of court for failure to appear.
Judge Krichbaum found that all four were properly summoned by Jury Commissioner Robert Jackson through personal service by the sheriff’s office to appear for grand-jury service May 3, but they failed to appear.
All four apologized Tuesday for their failure to appear and promised the judge “that such conduct would not occur again,” the judge wrote in a series of judgment entries.
All four showed up at 8:30 a.m. Thursday in Judge Krichbaum’s court as ordered and spent the morning observing court proceedings from a spectator bench. Moore appeared in civilian clothes, not in a police uniform.
“It has to be that people who are summoned or ordered by the court to appear have to appear,” the judge told the group before dismissing them shortly before noon Thursday.
None of the four spoke to The Vindicator after the judge dismissed them. He told them to return to his court next Thursday.