By Krystal Smalley
ksmalley@wbcowqel.com
In Rannel Cooper’s first appearance in Crawford County Common Pleas Court, he was able to avoid prison. By his second appearance, he was not so lucky.
Cooper, 25, pleaded guilty to drug possession and having weapons under disability in December and was placed on community control. He returned to court five months later for violating his probation.
Cooper admitted to possessing K2 and failing to complete his inpatient substance abuse program as ordered by the court. Judge Sean Leuthold imposed the original sentences, 12 and 36 months respectively, for a total of 48 months.
When Judge Sean Leuthold gave Heather Grasley a second chance Wednesday, it was only to tell the truth.
The 28-year-old Grasley appeared in Crawford County Common Pleas Court Wednesday afternoon for allegations that she violated the terms of her community control when she tested positive for opiates during a drug screen the day before.
Grasley has been on community control since pleading guilty to drug possession last November and was a part of Leuthold’s Intensive Supervision and Treatment (ISAT) program.
Leuthold, who had seen Grasley regularly during the months she was involved in the ISAT program, pointedly asked Grasley what caused her to go off track with her treatment.
Grasley said she had a headache and a friend had given her a pill to take care of it. She told the judge that she didn’t find out the pill was Percocet until after the fact.
“I can tell by looking at Ms. Grasley . . . she has gone off the rails,” Leuthold said. After a long moment, he told her he would give her a second chance to be honest.
Grasley sat for a moment before admitting that she had been pressured.
Leuthold reminded Grasley that she had chances during the ISAT program to step up when he asked if anyone was being pressured into using drugs.
Grasley admitted to violating the terms of her community control and Leuthold sentenced her to eight months in prison.
Fifty-year-old Jerry Cameron and 30-year-old Adam Smith, both of Bucyrus, pleaded guilty to drug possession. Judge Leuthold ordered a pre-sentence investigation to be completed and continued bond for both men. The prosecution recommended that Cameron and Smith be sentenced to five years on community control with the special condition that each man enters into a drug and alcohol treatment program. Their driver’s licenses would also be suspended for six months and they would have to pay a $1,250 mandatory drug fine as well as forfeit drug-related property to the Bucyrus Police Department.
Scott Thompson lasted just over a year on probation before being sent back to Crawford County Common Pleas Court.
Thompson, 27, was granted judicial release in February 2014 after serving approximately two years of his four-and-a-half-year sentence in prison on two breaking and entering charges and one burglary case, all spanning from 2010 to 2012.
Judge Leuthold ordered bond set at $100,000 after hearing allegations that Thompson had been driving under FRA suspension and operating a motor vehicle while intoxicated on May 23. Thompson denied the allegations.
Adult Parole Authority officer Mark Alspach added that Thompson was found slumped over the wheel of his vehicle while parked in the parking lot of Speedway in Galion. Concerned citizens reportedly called the Galion Police Department when they thought the person inside the car was dead. When police approached Thompson, Alspach said that the odor of alcohol was on his body.
Defense attorney Thomas Nicholson stated that Thompson had not been driving erratically and was parked in the parking lot because he did not want to drive.
Leuthold ordered a final hearing to be scheduled within 14 days.
Twenty-year-old Zachariah Zacharzuk of Galion was arraigned on drug possession charges Wednesday afternoon. Zacharzuk allegedly possessed heroin on March 28. Leuthold appointed Brad Starkey as counsel and set bond at $100,000.