By Gary Ogle
gogle@wbcowqel.com
Tuesday was a good news-bad news type of day in Crawford County Common Pleas Court.
The good news was for 43-year-old Dennis Franklin of Bucyrus. Franklin’s motion to be placed into the Intervention in Lieu of Conviction Program was granted by Judge Russell Wiseman. Franklin was charged and pleaded guilty to a felony five charge of drug possession dating back to October.
But in keeping with the intervention program, Wiseman held the plea and placed Franklin on intervention for an initial period of two years. Should Franklin successfully complete that program the felony charge will be dropped.
The bad news could just be beginning for three people. Ryan Staton, Timothy Crawford and Jerry Brown all had initial hearings on charges they violated conditions of their community control or intervention programs. All three cases were continued.
Staton, who was convicted of felony four burglary and placed on community control in January, is charged with failing to contact probation officer Mark Stalter. Wiseman set Staton’s bond at $75,000 and appointed Geoffrey Stoll as Staton’s legal counsel.
Crawford is on community control as a result of convictions for receiving stolen property and forgery in 2012. Crawford is accused of breaking windows out of a car to steal a purse, being in possession of drug paraphernalia and refusing to submit to a drug test. Wiseman set bond at $100,000 and appointed Shane Leuthold to represent Crawford.
Brown was charged with not following the conditions of his intervention program and was sternly reprimanded by Wiseman. Brown was placed on the intervention program in January following his guilty plea to drug possession. Brown is accused of since being convicted of OVI and driving under suspension and testing positive for cocaine and marijuana. Wiseman appointed Andrew Motter to represent Brown and released him on a personal recognizance bond at the recommendation of assistant prosecutor Ryan Hoovler.