By Kathy Laird
CCN correspondent
BUCYRUS — Todd W. Allen, 55, of Shelby was sentenced to 30 months in prison Wednesday in Crawford County Common Pleas Court.
Allen pleaded guilty to permitting drug abuse, a fifth-degree felony and illegal conveyance of drugs into a detention facility, a third-degree felony.
Judge Sean Leuthold sentenced Allen to 12 months in prison on the first count and 30 months on the second count but ran the sentences concurrently according to a plea deal.
Upon sentencing, Leuthold has some harsh words for Allen.
“You’re 55, you are too old for this nonsense,” Leuthold said. “You were messing with fentanyl. Get yourself together in prison and don’t do this anymore. It’s going to end one of two ways — you’ll be in prison or you’ll be dead.”
Allen was ordered to forfeit all drug-related property to the Crawford County Sheriff’s Department.
A Galion man abruptly stopped his community control hearing to plead guilty to violating the terms and conditions of his parole. Tyler Owens, 27, of Galion insisted on having a hearing to determine if there was probable cause to charge him with violating the conditions of his judicial release.
Adult Probation Officer Mark Alspach was sworn in and took the stand to testify regarding the conditions that were violated. Owens was on community control from a burglary conviction in 2016, a second-degree felony.
Alspach outlined a number of violations, but when he said Owens tested positive for various drugs in his system, Owens consulted with his attorney, Andrew Motter. Motter asked for a sidebar meeting with the judge and prosecutors and said his client wanted to plead guilty to a general violation of the terms and conditions of his parole.
Motter explained to the court that his client wanted to prolong being sent to prison because his brother is terminally ill. Owens said his brother suffers from kidney disease but still comes to see him at the jail.
Leuthold imposed the remaining four years on Owens’ prison sentence. In a humanitarian gesture, Leuthold agreed to postpone his transfer to prison for one week so that he could visit with his brother.
Joseph Will, 59, of Bucyrus will spend the next 12 months in prison. Will was on judicial release on a possession of drugs charge. He appeared in court to answer to charges that he violated the terms and conditions of his community control.
Will was charged with being belligerent with the Bucyrus Police Department, resisting arrest, obstruction and aggravated menacing.
In a rare move, Leuthold allowed Will to plead guilty to the charges and go back to prison to complete the remaining 12 months of his sentence. Since Will’s attorney, Joel Spitzer, was not in court with the defendant, he signed a waiver requesting he not be represented by legal counsel.
“This is not Mr. Will’s first rodeo. He knows what he is doing,” Leuthold said. “He decided to come in here and take his medicine. He wants to do his 12 months in prison and be done with community control. I’m going to allow him to do that.”
A 24-year-old Galion woman had the judicial hammer laid down when she appeared before Judge Leuthold for violating the terms and conditions of her community control. Kelly Mollencopf drew the judge’s ire after she contacted a known felon after he gave her specific instructions not to be in contact with her boyfriend.
“I told you to have no contact with your boyfriend. You left my courtroom and called him and told him you could have no contact with him,” Leuthold said. “And then you told him how to get around it. Your problem is you think you are smarter than me and I am about to show you how wrong you are about that.”
Telling her that he did not miss a thing, Leuthold explained that he has seen every trick in the book when people are trying to get around the rules. Mollencopf sat silently as the judge addressed her.
“If you pull this stunt again, I am going to put you in prison. You will do what I say when I say. Do we understand each other?” Leuthold said.
He made Mollencopf repeat back to him that she understood his directives. She was ordered to complete drug and alcohol treatment, stay out of bars and to have no association with any felons. She is not permitted to remain living with the woman whom she convinced to help her get around the rules about communication with her boyfriend, a co-defendant.
Admitting he was rough on Mollencopf, Leuthold told her that he did not believe she is a bad person but got involved with a bad boyfriend.
“Straighten up and in a few years, you can put this whole thing behind you,” Leuthold said.