Former Warren ‘hero’ sentenced to 22 months in prison

Staff report

WARREN

Roderick L. Lewis Jr., 25, a one-time award-winning community activist and Warren Board of Education candidate, has been sentenced to 22 months in prison for his second felony theft conviction since 2013.

Lewis, of Stewart Drive Northwest, pleaded guilty Tuesday in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court to a felony theft charge relating to a bogus Warren real-estate deal, and got eight months in prison.

He got another 14 months in prison Wednesday from another common pleas judge for violating the terms of his 2013 probation for stealing from an elderly Howland woman.

In the more-recent case, Warren police said a woman, 20, of Maplewood Street Northeast and her fiance put $3,000 down and were to pay $450 per month rent for a furnished home they were going to buy on land contract.

They became suspicious and reported the deal to police, who determined that Lewis was posing as a real-estate representative for Built Rite Enterprise named Larry James Jr., and that the house actually is in an estate, and Lewis doesn’t own it.

In the earlier incident, Howland police said a woman, 92, lost her purse at Kohl’s Department Store on Niles-Cortland Road and found out that fraudulent charges of $2,050 had been made on her credit cards that day.

Police said Lewis impersonated a police officer while talking to the victim on the telephone later and induced her to put a new credit card in the mailbox for him to “run it through the police station.” More fraudulent charges then appeared on the new card, police said.

He got 60 days in the Trumbull County jail for his first conviction.

Lewis became known in 2009 and 2010 for school-supply giveaways he and his family carried out and other projects.