Judge refuses treatment program in military statue case

Staff report

WARREN

Judge Andrew Logan of Trumbull County Common Pleas Court has denied a request by the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections to allow a man who scrapped parts of a $36,000 military statue to avoid most of the prison term he received last month.

Judge Logan’s office sent the denial in the mail Tuesday.

Richard Couturiaux, 31, of Hubbard, received a 26-month prison term after being convicted of charges relating to the theft of a military statue from a Youngstown cemetery in March and selling chunks of it at a Girard scrapyard for $75.

He also was convicted of a separate 2012 home burglary in Hubbard Township and of removing a bronze plaque from the grave of a military veteran at the same cemetery.

The prison system routinely asks common-pleas court judges whether certain people convicted of low-level felonies can be moved to a “Second Chance To Change” program to reduce their prison sentence to a few months and give them treatment for drug addictions and other issues.