By Gary Ogle
gogle@wbcowqel.com
Two men admitted to violating their probation on Monday in Crawford County Common Pleas Court and both will be going away as a result, just not to the same place.
Twenty-six-year-old Darren Conley admitted to changing his residence without notifying his probation officer, failing to report as required and refusing to submit to a drug test. However, Conley had one thing few others in the courtroom did – an understanding of his legal history and what he had been in prison for and what he was on probation for. Split sentences were the reason for the confusion and Judge Sean Leuhold commended Conley for being able to sort through the tangled legal spider web.
In the end though, Conley was sentenced to prison for the balance of a 36-month sentence stemming from a conviction for having weapons under disability in 2012.
“When you get a second chance, and you will, take advantage of it,” the judge told Conley before he left the courtroom.
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Accused of being in the company of a convicted felon, a positive drug test and being in a bar – all while being on probation – Tristan Lucas was greeted with these words by Judge Leuthold at his hearing.
“There has to be somebody in the county dumber than your are,” the judge said. “But I can’t think of who it might be at the moment. You have squandered every opportunity.”
Lucas was one of three men the judge had originally labeled as “three idiots with a pellet gun” in the 2015 robbery of Freezer Fresh in Crestline. He was continued on probation and ordered to go to a community based corrections facility for treatment. Judge Sean Leuthold noted he will still be in a lockdown situation at the CBCF.
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