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Man gets almost a year in jail for stealing electricity
By Joe Gorman
YOUNGSTOWN
Judge Elizabeth Kobly thinks Arthur Bledsoe has a problem with his memory, so she made sure Thursday he will have something to remember her by.
Bledsoe, 60, of Kiwatha Road, was sentenced to almost a year in the Mahoning County jail on a charge of theft for stealing his neighbor’s electricity for two weeks.
He also was sentenced for a probation violation because he was on probation for another theft offense at the time he was arrested for stealing the electricity.
He entered a plea of no contest to the theft charge in municipal court, where he also was on probation for receiving stolen property. Besides violating his probation with the theft charge, Bledsoe also was in violation because he failed to report to probation.
“Well, Mr. Bledsoe, we’re going to get your attention,” Judge Kobly said.
Assistant City Prosecutor Jeffrey Moliterno said Bledsoe has a record of theft and related offenses from several jurisdictions.
Police were called to a home in the 3000 block of Kiwatha Road about 6:35 p.m. June 25, where a woman told them she had been gone for two weeks and when she returned she found an extension cord running from her home to Bledsoe’s home. Reports said Bledsoe told officers he had been taking electricity for two weeks.
Thursday, Bledsoe told the judge he took the electricity because he was in the hospital for a month and a half with congestive heart failure and while he was gone someone moved into his home and his electricity was turned off. Bledsoe said when he returned, the people who stayed in his home had no electricity and one of them had just given birth, so he ran the cord to the neighbor’s home in order to get light so he could clean up.
“I did what I thought was best,” Bledsoe said.
“You stole like you always do,” Judge Kobly answered.
He also said when he was in the hospital he called the probation department and they told him he was no longer on probation, but a probation officer summoned to the court said that was not the case, that after an initial appointment Bledsoe failed to show up for his next one.
“It’s a shame your congestive heart failure couldn’t keep you from stealing,” the judge said.
Judge Kobly sentenced Bledsoe to 150 days in jail on the theft charge and an additional 167 days on the probation violation.