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Man smokes crack, messes up chance for probation
By Joe Gorman
YOUNGSTOWN
When defense lawyer Mark Carfolo drove to the Mahoning County Courthouse on Friday morning, he said he had the perfect speech in his head worked out for his client, Ashley Schaffhauser.
Schaffhauser was being sentenced on two separate drug charges before Common Pleas Court Judge Lou A. D’Apolito and was expected to receive probation.
After getting to the courthouse, Carfolo found out Schaffhauser admitted smoking crack – at the place he was undergoing drug treatment less than 36 hours before his sentencing.
So much for his speech. Instead, Carfolo told Judge D’Apolito that his client deserved whatever sentence the court deemed appropriate. The judge sentenced the 23-year-old to a year in the county jail.
“How smart is that?” the judge asked him about getting high. “Just before I’m about to sentence you.”
Schaffhauser, of Fifth Street in Beloit, agreed it was not one of his brightest moves.
“It was one of the most stupidest decisions I’ve ever made,” Schaffhauser said.
Schaffhauser was to be sentenced on a charge of illegal possession of chemicals for the manufacture of drugs and a separate charge of aggravated possession of drugs.
He was caught using a mobile meth lab by Goshen police on March 25.
As part of his bond while awaiting sentencing, he was to attend drug treatment at Community Corrections Association on Market Street, which was where he was smoking crack about sometime between 1 and 2 a.m. Thursday morning.
Dave Stillwagon, chief executive officer of CCA, said residents using drugs at the facility occurs infrequently. He said all residents are tested whenever they leave for any illegal substances.
Stillwagon said there were two other residents who were smoking crack with Schaffhauser and they were all kicked out of the program and their probations were violated. They will now have to go before the judges hearing their cases and explain their actions.
All Carfolo could say about his client was that he is an addict and always will be.
When asked why he was taking drugs, Schaffhauser told the judge someone else at the facility had brought the crack in, and everyone around him was smoking it. He said he was afraid if he did not smoke it, he would be labeled a “snitch” and be subjected to a beating, although he did say he went on his own to staff and told them what he had done.
“I felt pressured to do that, [use drugs]” Schaffhauser said. “I was worried I was going to get into a fight and get written up that way.”
Schffhauser said he was planning on taking the test for his GED next week. The judge told him, “You’ll have plenty of time to study.”
Probation was recommended in the original case, both by prosecutors and a presentence report, but Judge D’Apolito said that recommendation was no longer valid.
“I think that is all a waste of my time and the government’s resources,” Judge D’Apolito said.