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Woman gets six months for taking steel grates from church
By Joe Gorman
YOUNGSTOWN
Jennifer Foley had no words as she was sentenced in municipal court Thursday to six months in the Mahoning County jail and three years’ probation after she pleaded no contest to taking window grates from a South Side church to sell for scrap.
Even if there were any words, they would have been hard to hear from the 27-year-old Foley, who spoke barely above a whisper.
But Judge Elizabeth Kobly had no trouble making herself understood, saying that stealing from a church just shows that for a heroin addict, there is no such thing as rock bottom.
“We all know there is really no low to which a heroin addict can go,” Judge Kobly said.
Foley pleaded no contest and was found guilty on charges of possession of criminal tools and receiving stolen property for taking steel window grates Aug. 4 from Gibson Heights Presbyterian Church on East Dewey Avenue and later selling them at a South Side recycling business. Assistant city Prosecutor Shelli Freeze and officer Dave Santangelo, who investigates scrap-metal crimes for the department, both said there is video from the recycling place of Foley selling the grates.
When questioned by the judge, Foley said she last worked two years ago and has a 2-year-old daughter. The judge said she was very concerned for the future of the child and also upset because Foley told Judge Kobly her mother watches the child when she is using drugs or in trouble.
“The sad thing is you can do a year in jail standing on your head,” Judge Kobly said. “It is always the child who suffers the consequences.”
Foley’s attorney, Gary Van Brocklin, told the judge his client was off drugs for three years but for some reason started using them again.
“She lost her way again and now is back in jail,” Van Brocklin said.
“I was doing good; I didn’t mean to,” Foley said before she stopped talking. “There’s nothing I can say.”
Both charges to which Foley pleaded guilty are first-degree misdemeanors, with a maximum jail sentence of six months each. Judge Kobly said she did not give Foley the maximum on both charges because then she cannot place her on probation, where the judge will have some kind of control over her once she gets out of jail. She will be subjected to random drug tests while on probation, and if she is found to be on drugs, she will go back to jail and serve the remaining 180 days.