By Gary Ogle
gogle@wbcowqel.com
After hearing testimony and looking at police reports Crawford County Common Pleas Court Judge Sean Leuthold was more than convinced a Bucyrus man violated his community control Monday morning.
The judge sentenced 45-year-old William Bruce of Bucyrus to 10 months in prison after the allegations led to a full hearing on the matter. Bruce was placed on community control last September after pleading guilty to felony drug possession and abusing harmful intoxicants.
Part of that sentence was a county jail sentence and Bruce had only been out of jail seven days when incidents arose on Dec. 9 that resulted in ADA probation officer Mark Stalter filing allegations that Bruce had already violated community control as a result of Municipal Court convictions on domestic violence, abusing harmful intoxicants and testing positive for oxycodone.
The oxycodone allegation was dismissed when it was shown Bruce had a prescription for the drug.
However, Bruce had pleaded guilty to the other two new charges in Municipal Court. His attorney, Thomas Nicholson, said Bruce admitted to those charges in the lower court even though he was not guilty of them.
Bruce said as much when giving testimony on the stand on Monday. Nicholson brought up a police report from the day prior, Dec. 8, when police responded to a domestic violence call between Bruce and his girlfriend. Stalter testified that he was unaware of that incident and Assistant Prosecutor Ryan Hoovler pointed out that Bruce’s failure to inform Stalter of the first incident could also be considered a probation violation.
Under questioning from Nicholson, Bruce’s testimony indicated that his girlfriend who was the alleged domestic violence victim on both Dec. 8 and Dec. 9 was currently in the Crawford County jail. Bruce also testified that he told police she had been high on K2 on Dec. 8. Bruce’s allegations about the victim being under the influence of K2 were in the Dec. 8 report.
Bruce testified that on Dec. 9 he went to a local retail store to purchase a phone and other items including cans of an aerosol dust cleaner and admitted, “I know that sounds bad, but I really didn’t huff it. That’s what got me in trouble in the first place.”
However, the Dec. 9 report which Judge Leuthold read into the court proceedings when rendering his decision cast doubt on the veracity of that part of Bruce’s testimony.
Bucyrus police had been called to Bruce’s residence he shared with his girlfriend again on Dec. 9. While waiting for Bruce to answer the door, three officers wrote in the report they heard Bruce exclaim, “Whew, that’s (expletive) good stuff.”
Furthermore, when they entered the house they discovered Bruce sitting in a recliner with one can of the dust cleaner in his lap, and two others on either side of him. Bruce claimed he had been using the cleaner to clean off his television and other video electronics, but officers noted in the report the items were covered with a layer of dust.
The judge found Bruce guilty of violating the two remaining allegations, namely the domestic violence and harmful intoxicant convictions. Leuthold did say that Nicholson had cast doubt on the credibility of Bruce’s girlfriend as a complaining witness, but that the standard of a preponderance of evidence had been met. In fact as to the harmful intoxicants charge, Leuthold noted he couldn’t imagine not finding Bruce guilty under any circumstances.
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