2 get jail time in Struthers branding case

July 2, 2015 at 7:07p.m.

YOUNGSTOWN

Judge Lou D’Apolito told three people standing before him for participating in the branding of a Struthers teen last August that they were the ones acting like teenagers.

D’Apolito told the three adults just before they were sentenced Thursday in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court that the reason laws are made to protect children is that children do not always exercise the best judgment. On the night they took part in branding the 17-year-old, Judge D’Apolito said they were the ones who acted like children.

“You three acted as if you were the minors,” Judge D’Apolito said.

Sentenced to nine months in the Mahoning County jail and three years’ probation was Brian Pryjma, 39; sentenced to six months in the jail and two years’ probation was Ronald Bier, 36; and sentenced to a year of probation and a 30-day suspended jail sentence was Laurie Lyden, 47. All three are from Struthers.

All three pleaded guilty April 27 to a charge of endangering children, a fourth-degree felony and contributing to the delinquency of a minor, a misdemeanor.

Pryjma and Bier also pleaded guilty to charges of aggravated assault, a fourth-degree felony.

The three are charged with heating the lid of a snuff can and also using martial-arts darts to brand the teen, then 17, on his buttocks at Pryjma’s Wilson Street home in Struthers, then giving the teen marijuana and pain pills.