Judge Kobly: Defendant 'lazy,' Woodside site a 'disgrace'

By DAVID SKOLNICK

skolnick@vindy.com

YOUNGSTOWN

A municipal judge yelled at a contractor for failing to clear the demolished debris of the former Woodside Receiving Hospital — calling him “lazy” and questioning his work ethic — and then sentenced him to three days in jail.

Youngstown Municipal Court Judge Elizabeth A. Kobly also ordered William A. McKinley, 50, owner of McKinley Industries, on Thursday to serve up to one year of house arrest. The sooner McKinley finishes the work at the former South Side state mental hospital, the quicker his house-arrest sentence will end, she said.

After McKinley said softly that the judge wouldn’t believe him that part of the delay on the project is because there’s a bald eagle in a smokestack, she yelled: “Do not disparage my character because of yours.”

She continued to yell: “Guess where you’re going today, Mr. McKinley. You think it’s acceptable to take on a project and do it at your convenience. There are piles of rubble because of you and your laziness.”

Judge Kobly said McKinley was “going to get” a “vacation at the county jail,” adding, “I am not playing with you.”

In addition to the Mahoning County jail sentence and house arrest — McKinley will have to pay that expense — Judge Kobly put him on two years’ probation and fined him $250.

The judge had a police officer handcuff McKinley and take him to the jail to start serving his sentence.

While under house arrest, McKinley will be permitted to go to the hospital site to finish the work he started two years ago.

Judge Kobly found him guilty Feb. 12 of two counts of failing to follow the city’s procedures for removing debris after demolishing the hospital and another structure on the East Indianola Avenue property.

Before being sentenced, McKinley told the judge that the work was “all finished. I graded it to where it’s supposed to be.” The work, he said, was finished a couple of weeks ago.

But Judge Kobly said she recently went to the site and “was pretty disappointed to see all the rubble and piles of debris that is still there.” She later said the location looked like “a disgrace, an absolute disgrace.”

The judge also said there was no excuse for the work to take this long to complete.

“You want to be a successful businessman; you need to do things the right way,” Judge Kobly said. “We want you to do what you were paid to do. You’re lazy, and everyone will know this.”

McKinley said there was an issue over ownership of the property that caused a delay, and later that a smokestack can’t be demolished because he spotted a bald eagle in it.

McKinley said he contacted the state about the bald eagle to get guidance as to what to do.

Jamey Emmert, a spokeswoman for the Ohio Division of Wildlife, which oversees issues related to bald eagles on behalf of the state, said: “We don’t have any information on it. We’re not familiar at all” with this.

Before sentencing, Richard W. Machuga, McKinley’s attorney, said his client suffers from medical ailments that make it impossible for him to work some days.

Machuga said the city law on demolition and removal procedures are unreasonable and the law doesn’t take into account his client’s health.

While handcuffed after the sentencing, McKinley said to Machuga: “I don’t know what the problem is. I graded it down. There are no piles.”

Demolition started in summer 2013, and the building was largely demolished in spring 2014. A few months later, city officials told McKinley and Carl Vaccar, head of ACV Realty of Canfield, the property owner, that the work had to be finished in 30 days. It wasn’t, and charges were filed.

ACV, with Vaccar as its “registered agent,” faces a charge of failing to follow the city’s property maintenance code. ACV’s next pretrial hearing in front of Judge Kobly is April 8.

Woodside was a state mental hospital that opened in 1945 and closed in 1996 when the state reduced funding for those facilities. The location became Lincoln Behavioral Health Center, a privately owned residential facility for counseling juveniles. It went out of business in 2008.