Mobile meth lab found during West Side traffic stop
By Joe Gorman
YOUNGSTOWN
Police say they found a mobile methamphetamine lab Thursday in a car belonging to a woman who has had multiple convictions for disorderly conduct and domestic-violence issues.
Deanna Moschella, 35, of North Brockway Avenue, was arraigned in municipal court Friday before Magistrate Anthony Sertick on charges of illegal assembly or possession of chemicals for the manufacture of drugs, failure to comply with the order or signal of a police officer, driving under suspension and possession of drug-abuse instruments.
Sertick set her bond at $60,000, down from a recommendation from city Prosecutor Dana Lantz, who recommended a bond of $100,000 – a recommendation that caused Moschella to burst into tears. When asked why she was crying, she said her boyfriend got picked up on the same charges a few days ago and his bond was set at $13,000.
Lantz was not sympathetic: “This is here,” Lantz said.
Moschella said the items found in her trunk, which led to the possession of chemicals charge, belong to someone else.
“They’re not mine,” Moschella said.
Reports said officers on patrol about 6:50 p.m. Thursday spotted a car Moschella was driving that was stopped in the middle of the intersection at Mahoning and Belle Vista avenues. Reports said she backed up while in the intersection then went forward but almost hit another car. Officers tried to pull her over but she refused until she made it to her home, reports said.
Reports said Moschella told police she had a suspended driver’s license so she was placed under arrest. When police searched her car, they found two needles in a purse and the makings of the meth lab in the trunk.
In the trunk in two separate coolers were muriatic acid, lye, Drano and Coleman fuel. A supervisor and members of the Mahoning Valley Law Enforcement Task Force confirmed the chemicals are used to make methamphetamine.
Moschella was taken to the Mahoning County jail.
Court records show two domestic-violance convictions for Moschella in 2010 and 2008, as well as convictions for disorderly conduct in 2006 in Austintown and 2007 and 2011 in municipal court, as well as a felony-vandalism charge in 2008 in common pleas court.
She also was arrested after hitting three cars and crashing into a building on the West Side in 2008. Moschella told Sertick she has not had a license since 2008.