Trmbull County sets record for drug and overall criminal cases

By Ed Runyan

runyan@vindy.com

WARREN

In spite of statistics showing that violent and property crime has been dropping in the nation and in Ohio, Trumbull County registered a record-high number of indictments in 2014.

To Trumbull County Prosecutor Dennis Watkins, the reason is simple: Drug-related crimes such as trafficking and possession have risen, along with the offspring of such behavior — break-ins, robberies, even sex crimes.

“Drug dealers and drug users are devastating to families and communities,” Watkins said.

Trumbull County had more than its share of drug-related activity in the past few years, as evidenced by the federal, state and local “Little D-town” investigation that in April 2013 resulted in the indictment of nearly 100 people on local and federal drugs and weapons charges.

That glut of cases, however, apparently didn’t rid the community of the problem. Trumbull County prosecutors presented 950 cases to county grand juries in 2013, which tied the previous record. In 2014, the number was 999.

Watkins said the rise in total cases is the result of the increase in drug crimes.

It’s true that the number of cases presented to the grand jury isn’t the same as the amount of cases resulting in indictment or conviction, but Watkins said it’s a good indicator of the amount of criminal activity.

“Forty percent of these cases [in 2014] are drug cases,” which is also a record percentage, Watkins said.

According to a recent report by the Ohio Office of Criminal Justice Services, violent crimes such as murder in the United States dropped by 4.4 percent in 2013 compared with 2012, the most recent time period available. Property crimes such as burglary dropped by 4.8 percent.

In Ohio, the rates dropped 8.4 percent and 8.7 percent, respectively.

So why do Trumbull County statistics suggest an increase?

For one, Trumbull County had the seventh-highest per-capita death rate for accidental overdose deaths in Ohio in 2012 and one of the highest rates in the state for pain pills prescribed per capita in 2011.

Capt. Jeff Orr of the Trumbull Ashtabula Group, one of the county’s primary narcotics investigation units, has repeatedly emphasized the strong connection among drug use, drug crime and overall crime, saying most crime has a connection to drug abuse.

Despite changes that have made it harder for addicts to get prescription painkillers, “there’s still a lot of over-prescribing pain medications in Trumbull County,” Orr said last year.

Dr. Humphrey Germaniuk, Trumbull County coroner, doesn’t have a final number of overdose deaths yet for 2014 because toxicology testing is still pending in some cases. But the number of deaths in 2014 has remained at about the same rate as in 2013, said Lauren Thorp, director of recovery and youth programs for the Trumbull County Mental Health and Recovery Board.

“I feel like it’s actually gotten worse,” she said. Ironically, because of more attention being focused on the drug epidemic and tighter restrictions being placed on prescription medications, “we’re seeing this major shift to heroin,” she said.

Watkins said even the increase in sex crimes against children seems to have some basis in drug abuse, with offenders frequently talking about their crimes in relation to their addictions.

“We’ve seen such an increase in child predation, an increase in robberies of elderly people preyed upon with a weapon,” he said.

Watkins said the drug problem makes it especially important for the community to provide help for addicts and for the law-enforcement community to identify the people who can be helped and those who need to go to prison.

“The solution to the rise in crime comes from a cooperative community effort that takes into consideration family, home, school and environmental issues,” he said, adding, “But the people who repeatedly commit violent crimes need to be incarcerated.”