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Youngstown mayoral candidate was in jail since Aug. 30
YOUNGSTOWN
As part of his sentencing for aggravated menacing and disorderly conduct, a judge banned mayoral candidate John M. Crea from city hall unless he has “proof of official business” at the building.
If Crea somehow wins the Nov. 5 mayoral election, Judge Robert P. Milich said that would be reason to eliminate the city-hall ban.
Judge Milich of Youngstown Municipal Court sentenced Crea, an independent mayoral candidate, to time served Thursday. Crea has been in the Mahoning County jail since his Aug. 30 arrest on the two misdemeanors. He was unable to post $7,000 bond.
Crea was placed Thursday on one year’s probation with a $100 probation fee as well as $390 in fines and court costs.
Crea has 90 days to pay the fines and court costs or he’ll find himself back in front of Judge Milich with the possibility of returning to jail.
Police charged Crea, 45, for blocking the entrance to city hall, 26 S. Phelps St., with his large dog about 9:40 a.m. Aug. 30 when a city security guard asked him several times to move, which he refused to do. Crea then “began yelling and cursing” at the security guard, a retired county deputy sheriff, as well as threaten to kill him and have his dog bite him, according to a police report.
Crea left when the security guard and a deputy pursued him, catching him about 10:25 a.m. on West Federal and Hazel streets, the report states.
Judge Milich also ordered Crea to undergo a mental-health assessment and treatment, and to have no contact with the security guard.
Crea wore a red-and-white-striped inmate jumpsuit with leg shackles and handcuffs attached in front of him to a chain around his waist. That particular jumpsuit is given to “high-risk” violent inmates, said Sheriff Jerry Greene.
Crea open-hand slapped a deputy in the face while he was being booked at the jail, Greene said. The matter was handled internally with Crea put in a “disciplinary pod,” with longer lockdown hours, Greene said.
The judge agreed to Crea’s request to have his dog, named Omega, a Chesapeake Bay retriever, returned to him.
After his Aug. 30 arrest, Crea signed a release giving the dog to the Animal Charity Humane Society in Boardman. The dog was up for adoption, but is still at the society and will be given to Crea once he gets there, said Talia Musolino, the agency’s executive director.
A friend of Crea’s called to adopt Omega so the dog could be returned to the owner once he got out of jail, but that person never showed up at the society office, Musolino said.
Also running for mayor is Democrat John A. McNally IV, a former city law director and county commissioner; DeMaine Kitchen, the mayor’s chief of staff/secretary, and Frank Bellamy, both independents; and write-ins Cecil Monroe and Claudette Moore.