Struthers residents charged in branding of teenager

Staff report

STRUTHERS

A Mahoning County grand jury indicted a Mahoning County Sheriff’s Office clerical employee and two Struthers residents Thursday for their purported involvement in the branding of a 17-year-old with a heated-up chewing tobacco lid and a throwing star, then giving him pain pills and marijuana.

Those charged with endangering children, corrupting another with drugs and felonious assault are 46-year-old Laurie Lyden, the MCSO employee; 38-year-old Brian Pryjma; and 35-year-old Ronald Bier.

According to a police report, the 17-year-old’s father reported the assault, which occurred outside a Wilson Street home Aug. 15.

The father told police that his son was held down and branded on his left buttocks by three men — Pryjma, Bier and a 33-year-old man who has not been formally charged in connection with the incident — after losing a bet involving the eating of moonshine-soaked cherries.

The report states that Pryjma and Bier held down the 17-year-old, as the other man branded him twice with the lid and once with the throwing star; Lyden purportedly videotaped the incident. Those involved then supplied the boy with drugs.

The 17-year-old suffered third-degree burns and had skin-graft surgery to heal the open wounds. He also had a blood infection that could have resulted in death had it gone untreated, according to the report.