By Krystal Smalley
ksmalley@wbcowqel.com
Judge Sean Leuthold may believe that there is only success or failure, but he is providing an Army National Guard veteran with the help he needs to succeed.
Twenty-eight-year-old Dustin Lowe appeared in Crawford County Common Pleas Court Wednesday afternoon and pleaded guilty to two counts of felony five drug possession. Lowe, a Galion resident, received five years on community control, a six-month driver’s license suspension, and a $1,250 fine. He must also complete a drug and alcohol assessment and enter in the court’s Intensive Supervision and Treatment program (ISAT).
Before detailing the special conditions he mentioned in passing, Leuthold focused on Lowe’s military history. Lowe served four years in the Army National Guard in the artillery division and completed a nine-month tour in Afghanistan. When Leuthold questioned Lowe on his emotional state, the veteran admitted to bouts of depression and apprehension, which Leuthold commented on being typical post-traumatic stress symptoms for people who served with artillery teams.
Leuthold said he will be partnering Lowe with a Vietnam veteran enrolled in the ISAT program in hopes that the elder veteran will serve as a mentor to Lowe. The judge noted that the Vietnam vet struggled with drugs all his life, but recently turned his life around.
Leuthold also instructed Lowe’s mother and step-brother, who were in attendance, to take him to a neurologist.
“At least with the PTSD, let’s get him to a doctor,” Leuthold said. “Let’s get him everywhere he needs to go.”
Though Leuthold supplied Lowe with numerous opportunities, he warned the young man that he justly earned his reputation for being tough.
“As nice as I have been to you today,” Leuthold said, “If you screw up, I’m going to send you to prison.”
The judge noted that he was not the only one worried about Lowe’s future – some of Lowe’s high school coaches expressed concern for him to Leuthold.
“There’s success and failure. That’s it; no in-between,” Leuthold reminded Lowe.
Lowe was arrested alongside Korinthia Wireman after the Galion Police Department responded to a complaint of a possible mobile meth lab at 675 Dawsett Ave. in April. Wireman pleaded guilty to the illegal assembly or possession of chemicals to manufacture drugs and drug possession in May. She received 48 months in prison.
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Twenty-nine-year-old Joseph Lawhun, of Mansfield, was formally sentenced to five years on community control, fined $1,000, and ordered to pay $3,613.75.
Jail was not on the agenda for Lawhun until he showed up to court in a Coors T-shirt, which Leuthold found to be disrespectful. Though he acknowledged that Lawhun just came from work, Leuthold added that he could easily have brought a proper shirt with him for his court hearing. He ordered Lawhun to report to the county jail on Saturday to serve one day in jail.
The judge added that he would terminate Lawhun from probation early if he paid the restitution in its entirety.
Lawhun pleaded guilty to fifth-degree felony theft in May.
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Leuthold denied a bond reduction after hearing arguments from defense attorney Thomas Nicholson and assistant prosecutor Ryan Hoovler in the case of Tasia Myers.
Myers, who had been granted a personal recognizance bond in April for theft, had been charged with second-degree felony burglary at the end of May.
Nicholson argued that Myers was “not a smash and grab kind of person” and only had a misdemeanor record before her recent felonies.
“It’s a matter of he said, she said type of thing,” Nicholson said, adding that Myers denied entering the home involved in the burglary, though she admitted to being with a “local well-known desperado.”
Hoovler noted that Myers was already given a chance when the court issued a personal recognizance bond in the first felony case, but she tested positive for drugs on one occasion and was unable to test a second time. Despite those violations, Myers was continued on the bond due to the capacity at the jail before being arrested on the new case.
“It doesn’t really sound like someone we can trust to be out on a PR bond,” Hoovler argued.
Leuthold seemed to agree. He stated that he never would have granted a personal recognizance bond if he had known about Myers’ pending second felony. He continued the $200,000 bond set in both cases.
Jacari Davison appeared in court for a diversion violation hearing. The 25-year-old Mansfield man allegedly failed to report to his monthly office visits in November and December, and failed to pay the cost of supervision and court costs.
Leuthold entered a denial of the allegations on Davison’s behalf and set bond at $15,000.
Davison pleaded guilty to receiving stolen property in 2015 and was placed on the court’s two-year diversion program.
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