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Man surprises judge, passes drug test
By Joe Gorman
YOUNGSTOWN
As a longtime lawyer and now a Mahoning County Common Pleas Court judge, Lou D’Apolito has heard it all before and then some.
So when he received glowing letters from a substance-abuse treatment facility on behalf of a man who was to appear before him on a probation violation on a breaking and entering charge – stemming from an arrest on a charge of possession of heroin – Judge D’Apolito ordered 28-year-old Matthew Treharn to be drug tested.
Treharn passed. Judge D’Apolito was surprised.
“I was skeptical,” the judge told Treharn on Tuesday just after he was tested. “Quite frankly, I didn’t think you would pass.”
Treharn was given two years’ probation on the violation to go along with the same sentence he received just minutes earlier from Judge Shirley J. Christian on two charges of possession of heroin.
Treharn pleaded guilty to the possession, stemming from his indictment in July to being one of several users in a large heroin ring in Youngstown. The people who ran the ring and who prosecutors say distributed the drugs were indicted on far more serious charges than those who were addicted to the drug.
Treharn was sentenced to six months in the Mahoning County jail as part of his three years’ probation in a 2014 breaking and entering case when he was re-arrested in the heroin ring case. His bond was revoked because the arrest violated the terms of his probation.
Treharn apologized to the judge, saying that while he was undergoing court-ordered treatment at Community Corrections Association, he did not participate. He told the judge he used drugs and left early before his treatment was finished.
“I completely did whatever I wanted there,” Treharn said.
Judge D’Apolito said he is glad the reviews from his recent treatment facility so far have turned out to be accurate.
“I tried not to give up on you,” Judge D’Apolito said.
Judge D’Apolito acknowledged Treharn has a long, daily battle the rest of his life with his drug addiction, but he urged Treharn to stay with his treatment and be an example to others who are battling addiction and think they cannot make it.
“This is a lifetime struggle you have, and it must be addressed every day you wake up, so you will be able to wake up the next day,” Judge D’Apolito said.
Treharn is allowed by both judges to continue his treatment in Pennsylvania.