METRO DIGEST || Tampering with records

Man pleads guilty to tampering with records

WARREN

Keith D. Chandler, 34, of Kinsman Township pleaded guilty Thursday to seven counts of tampering with records and one count of forgery for falsifying documents to obtain Purple Heart license plates.

The charges say he tampered with his military discharge papers in 2009 and tampered with Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicle records in 2011, 2012 and 2013.

He will be sentenced in about a month, after the Trumbull County Adult Probation Department conducts a pre-sentencing investigation.

Child found wandering

newton falls

Dustin Coakley, 28, of Newton Falls pleaded not guilty to child endangering after his girlfriend’s 4-year-old son was found walking alone a block from their home, Vindicator news partner, 21 WFMJ-TV, reports. Coakley entered the plea in Newton Falls Municipal Court on Thursday.

A woman told police she found the child walking in the area of the Fairport Drive bridge near Water Street last Friday. Police said the boy said he was going to his grandmother’s house because she lives nearby. Police later learned the grandmother lives in Ravenna. An officer was able to determine the child lived on Olive Street and took him home.

Police found Coakley sleeping on the couch. The boy’s mother wasn’t home. Police said Coakley was wanted on an arrest warrant out of Warren for failing to appear in court on a 2009 liquor violation. Coakley was taken to jail, then freed on $1,000 bond after an appearance in Warren Municipal Court.

The boy, a 7-year-old girl and a 1-year-old boy who also were at the home were turned over to Coakley’s girlfriend and her mother.

Man gets probation

WARREN

Michael S. Reddinger, 27, of Cascade Drive, Youngstown, was ordered Thursday to serve five years’ probation for breaking into a Kline Street, Girard, home in June and taking two handguns, a Brookfield Township police uniform and a tablet computer.

A photograph of Reddinger in the uniform and holding one of the guns was posted on Instagram, prosecutors said.

Reddinger was taken from the courtroom of Judge Ronald Rice of Trumbull County Common Pleas Court to the county jail to await space in the Northeast Ohio Community Alternative Program, where he will participate in a substance-abuse program.

Real-estate taxes due

YOUNGSTOWN

The Mahoning County Treasurer’s Office has mailed first-half real-estate tax bills, for which the payment deadline is March 6.

The bills will be in a new format, and taxpayers will have the option of paying both first- and second-half taxes now in one payment. Treasurer Dan Yemma also is issuing the “online challenge,” in which a 60-cent convenience fee for electronic check payments will be waived.

Taxes also may be paid in person at the treasurer’s office, 120 Market St., between 8 a.m. and 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday. Payments also may be made at Seven Seventeen Credit Union and Farmers National and Cortland banks.

Purse-snatching

NEWTON FALLS

Police are looking for a man they believe is responsible for taking a purse from a senior citizen’s shopping cart at a local supermarket. Newton Falls Police Chief Gene Fixler has distributed a surveillance image from the store of the suspect, according to Vindicator broadcast partner. 21 WFMJ-TV.