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Owners of suspected drug house in Boardman send legal notice to remove tenants
BOARDMAN
The owners of 120 Wildwood Drive, the target of a township police drug raid last week, have told the tenants who are suspected of participating in drug activity there to leave.
One of the tenants is their son.
Township Trustee Tom Costello on Monday received paperwork from an attorney representing John and Theodora Forgach, whose son, Michael J. Forgach, has been arrested three times since March after searches of the house that his parents own. The couple has notified the township that they are going through the process of removing their son from the property, getting him into substance-abuse treatment and bringing the property into compliance with township property standards.
Township officials previously indicated they were working with the Mahoning County Prosecutor’s Office to have the house declared a nuisance and boarded up.
The letter from the Forgachs’ attorney – noting “recent drug activity at the property and the subsequent news coverage” – states: “My clients are of course very embarrassed by the ongoing problems of their son, and desire to cooperate with the trustees in eliminating all activity at the property which the trustees have termed a ‘nuisance.’”
The letter also notes that Michael Forgach on Sunday was served a statutory notice to leave the premises by June 28. If he does not leave by that time, the next step would be eviction.
“Additionally,” wrote Atty. Alden Chevlen, “Mr. and Mrs. Forgach are working diligently to find a treatment facility for their son as quickly as possible to get him out of the house, out of Boardman, and off the streets.”
The Forgachs would like to bring the property into compliance, then keep it as a rental property, according to their attorney.
Costello said this arrangement would be suitable “as long as we can clean up the problem.”
“It’s a beautiful home and a beautiful neighborhood,” he said. “I just want that neighborhood, as all of our neighborhoods, to be safe.”
The township police department’s narcotics enforcement unit raided the house Friday for the third time since March. The search turned up a slew of drug-related items, including more than 100 syringes, according to a police report documenting the operation.
Along with Michael Forgach, 41; Syrena Whitfield, 25; and Dawond Roddy, 31, who also live at the house, were arrested on numerous charges.
The search turned up the following items: electronic devices; $123 in cash and a debit card; numerous uncapped, bloodied syringes; a digital scale; a birth certificate, state-issued food-assistance card and court documents belonging to Roddy; pieces of plastic bags; more than 100 needles; chore boy (steel wool that is used to smoke crack cocaine); capped needles in Whitfield’s purse; needle caps; powder residue; and gray powder found in an upstairs closet.
When police entered the house, they reportedly found Forgach sitting on a living room sofa with loaded syringes next to him, and more loaded syringes in a bedroom from which Whitfield exited. Whitfield later admitted to police that she had been shooting up heroin when they got there, according to the police report.
All three suspects are charged with permitting drug abuse, possessing drug-abuse instruments and possession of drug paraphernalia.
Additionally, Whitfield was arrested Friday on a warrant for inducing panic. A police report on the April 29 incident from which the charge stems indicates that Whitfield suffered a drug overdose at the Wildwood house.
Police reportedly were called to the house about 10 a.m. April 29 for a possible overdose. Upon arrival, officers saw Forgach running out of the house and “frantically waving his arms” at them.
Whitfield reportedly was lying unconscious in the driveway while two women, later identified as relatives of Whitfield’s, performed CPR. Police revived her with two doses of Narcan, a medication that reverses the effects of an opioid overdose.
Neighbors who spoke to The Vindicator during the drug raid Friday said they have long suspected 120 Wildwood of being a haven for drug activity, as they often saw vehicles stopping at the house for short periods of time.
Township police previously raided the house in March and April. Both times, Forgach was arrested on drug charges. Court records indicate that the charges from the March incident were dismissed, and that the charges from the April incident were bound over to a Mahoning County grand jury. Forgach was indicted last week on charges of heroin possession, cocaine possession and permitting drug abuse.
On Monday, Whitfield and Roddy remained in the Mahoning County jail, and Forgach had posted bond. All three are scheduled to appear in Mahoning County Area Court here today for arraignment.