By Gary Ogle
gogle@wbcowqel.com

One defendant discovered firsthand Wednesday that a second trip through the Crawford County Justice System on drug-related charges ends in prison.

Common Pleas Court Judge Sean Leuthold stared down from the bench at 36-year-old Thomas Kouns and told him matter-of-factly, “The first time I saw you, you weren’t prison eligible . . . . .You violated (probation) so I am sending you to prison.”

Leuthold sentenced Kouns to nine months in prison after APA Officer Mark Alspach told the court that Kouns had tested positive for multiple opiates on Jan. 9.

In late November Kouns pleaded guilty to the felony five charge of permitting drug abuse and was sentenced to five years of community control. As a first-time offender, Kouns was not prison-eligible at that time for the low level felony.

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A defendant not prison eligible, even though he had pleaded guilty to three drug-related felonies, was in court for his formal sentencing hearing and received a stern warning from the judge.

Thirty-five-year-old Brian Auck was sentenced to five years of community control, but must spend the first 180 days in the county jail. Two of the charges Auck now stands convicted of are felony four drug trafficking.

“As I’ve railed against many times, the state legislature has ruled he can’t go to prison even though he has two counts of drug trafficking,” Leuthold said of Auck.

Auck must also successfully complete a drug and alcohol treatment program, had his driver’s license suspended for six months and was fined $2,500.

“If I could put you in prison for trafficking in drugs, I certainly would,” the judge told Auck, and added a promise he would sentence him to prison should he fail on community control in any way.

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Twenty-two-year Trisha Lewis appeared in court for an initial appearance alleging she had violated her community control. Lewis is alleged to have failed to comply with her treatment program and twice had positive drug tests, one of which was for alcohol.

Leuthold set bond Lewis’s bond at $150,000 and appointed Adam Stone to represent her.

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