Man gets 12 years for impersonating cop, harassing deputy
By Joe Gorman
YOUNGSTOWN
Eric Brazina told a Mahoning County Common Pleas Court judge Thursday he was only doing what he learned behind bars to a deputy sheriff, who he accused of mistreating him while in the county jail.
But that will cost him 12 years, the sentence handed down by Judge Maureen A. Sweeney on charges of five counts of telephone harassment, three counts of impersonating a police officer and one count of disrupting public officers.
Brazina, 24, of Shafer Road Northwest in Warren, was convicted by a jury after a brief trial last month of harassing a female deputy who oversaw the pod where Brazina was housed. Brazina said he had no intention of harming the deputy, but he said the deputy mistreated him and he wanted to pay her back.
“I learned in the jail when someone mistreats you a certain way, you have to get back at them,” Brazina said. Assistant Prosecutor Martin Desmond asked for the maximum 12-year sentence because of Brazina’s record and the serious emotional harm he inflicted on the victim.
Brazina was on probation for five counts of telephone harassment filed in 2013 when he began harassing the deputy with a series of calls in April and May, Desmond said. After he was found to have violated his probation, he was sentenced to three years in prison. The sentence was tacked on to the probation violation.
Desmond said Brazina’s behavior has escalated from calling random people to harassing a specific person.
“It’s a person whose behavior is getting worse and worse,” Desmond said. “That’s very scary. It’s frightening when you look at an individual like Mr. Brazina, who is getting worse.”
Walter Ritchie, Brazina’s lawyer, said Brazina’s behavior masks more serious problems. “He doesn’t think like a normal person,” Ritchie said. “There is something wrong with him.”
Brazina admitted his behavior was wrong, but said he felt a need for revenge.
“Instead I took matters into my own hands, trying to put her through what she put me through,” Brazina said.
Desmond said Brazina would call the deputy and claim to be a member of another law-enforcement agency, making excuses trying to get the deputy to meet him somewhere in person, but no meeting ever took place.