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OVI Task Force teaches and enforces at same time in Mahoning County
By ROBERT CONNELLY
BOARDMAN
Scott Weamer, Canfield’s assistant police chief, could smell marijuana, but he could not find it in the man’s car.
The man was diverted into the Sparkle Market parking lot, 4121 South Ave., after driving through the first of two checkpoints operated Friday night by the Mahoning County Operating a Vehicle while Impaired Task Force.
They later discovered the man had a piece of paper folded up many times with what is called marijuana wax. It looks like ear wax, but is extracted THC from a marijuana plant and is highly potent.
“He admitted that was what it was,” said Boardman Police Sgt. John Allsopp.
The man received a minor misdemeanor charge for drug abuse and drove away from the checkpoint. The wax was taken as evidence. Allsopp added that wax product is “very rare to see” and “it’s unique to our area ... it’s the strongest form of marijuana.”
A Vindicator reporter and photographer observed the OVI checkpoint late Friday and early Saturday.
Weamer and Allsopp and other officers working the South Avenue checkpoint said it was the first time they saw that product. “That’s what they were mixing in that Campbell” drug bust last week, said Boardman Police Officer Evan Beil.
That raid resulted in the arrest of Owen Black III, 43, of Campbell; Tracy Black, 41, of Campbell; and Richard Halloway Jr., 19, of Nashville, Ohio. Those three were arrested June 22 after police found 50 marijuana plants and materials for a hash-oil operation Monday in a Campbell home.
Though the task force gets its name from OVIs, both from alcohol and drugs, it stresses the educational aspect of what it does.
Weamer says the task force blends enforcement with education. Many drivers that were diverted for further checking Friday night at the South Avenue Sparkle and then at the second location, Boardman United Methodist Church, 6809 Market St., were released with no charges or minor misdemeanors on drug-related charges.
ARRESTS MADE
There was one OVI arrest at the second checkpoint. “Just keep being a gentleman, and you’ll be home in an hour. ... It was a bad decision, that’s all it was,” Weamer told the man who was apologetic for driving impaired.
The man told Weamer “thank you” before he entered a Beaver Township police vehicle to be booked at Boardman Police Department. Any arrests or citations issued Friday night were through Boardman police and court appearances were set in Mahoning County Area Court in that township.
Vincent D’Egidio, New Middletown police chief, was not able to make it to the first checkpoint because while leaving his jurisdiction he pulled over a car driven by a man suspected of OVI.
Two men pulled over at the Market Street checkpoint had open containers, a minor misdemeanor, but their car smelled of marijuana.
After the duo said a friend they had previously dropped off smoked in the car and the car was searched, they were given warnings and released. Officers seized the open containers of a Bud Light can and a bottle in a Crown Royal bag, but neither of the men was found to be impaired.
Another driver, who was issued a minor misdemeanor for marijuana, was laughing with Canfield Sgt. Jim Conrad in the diversion stop area as both talked about people they knew who had hit jackpots at Hollywood Gaming at Mahoning Valley Race Course in Austintown.
Officers found a bag with some marijuana in it after looking through the man’s car, but Conrad told the man, “If you would’ve smoked tonight, you could have gotten an OVI.”
One woman was diverted at the Sparkle checkpoint for a driver’s license check. It turned out she did not have a license and had three outstanding warrants against her from Niles, Portage County and Columbus. She was driven from the Sparkle lot to be handed over to Niles police on a larceny charge.
SELECTION PROCESS
The task force selects its locations based on crash data. The South Avenue checkpoint was near the Youngstown-Boardman line of Midlothian Boulevard, Weamer explained. “We’re not looking specifically right here at South Avenue, but we’re looking at South Avenue in general,” he said.
For the grant years 2011, 2012 and 2013, which run October through September, there were 34 alcohol-related crashes on South Avenue and half of those were with injuries, he said.
Workers from the Ohio Department of Transportation set up cones in the turn lane on the roadway. That is where officers “work the line” and interact with drivers for about 30 seconds and ask for their drivers’ license and if they have had anything to drink while informing them who they are and why they are on the roadway.
The task force has its own trailer with two breath-analysis test machines in it to allow for booking someone on an OVI at the checkpoint. That process can take an hour.
Weamer said the Mahoning County Emergency Management Agency frequently brings its heated vehicle to task-force events so the officers working it can warm up for a bit.
Informational briefings took place before each checkpoint was opened, with officers assigned to each direction of travel or to a saturation patrol.
“We need to be thinking of OVI. ... It’s not just alcohol, it’s drugs,” Weamer told officers before the South Avenue checkpoint began.
D’Egidio worked the line at the second checkpoint. A number of drivers gave their licenses to D’Egidio and he would tell them, “Where’s that smile?” Drivers would then laugh because they had smiled in their license photo, and if there were no indicators or reasons for detainment, the drivers would continue onto Market Street.
It was about 10:18 p.m. Friday, and a car sped up in the South Avenue checkpoint area and an officer yelled, “Whoa, whoa, whoa!”
That car was directed to be detained for further investigation, and the driver was walked from his car to the Sparkle parking lot. The driver took off his glasses and went through the three sobriety-field tests – horizontal gaze, the walk and turn and standing on one leg.
“I can tell you’ve had a little bit to drink ... but you’re not impaired,” Conrad told the man. He was released and not charged with any crime after about 10 minutes in the detention area for tests and to talk with officers.
“We’re not out here to arrest people. We’re out here for impaired drivers,” Weamer said.
Officers from these communities and enforcement agencies participate in the OVI task force: Austintown, Beaver, Boardman, Canfield City, Goshen, Jackson, Mahoning County Sheriff’s Office, Mill Creek MetroParks, Milton, New Middletown, Ohio State Highway Patrol, Poland Township, Springfield, Youngstown and Youngstown State University.
Of those agencies, Austintown, Goshen, Jackson and Youngstown officials did not participate in the checkpoints Friday night.