By Krystal Smalley
news@wbcowqel.com

Judge Sean Leuthold didn’t believe Adam Swerlein was a lost cause but he was also determined to hold the man accountable for his own well-being.

Swerlein, 28, had been on community control since pleading guilty to a felony five drug possession charge in 2013. During that time the Bucyrus man was placed on the Crawford County Common Pleas Court’s drug court program. Community control was not a smooth road for Swerlein. He had a theft charge brought against him in 2014 and was continuously drug tested. Despite that, Swerlein graduated from drug court earlier this year.

A few months later, however, Swerlein violated his community control when he tested positive for marijuana and Suboxone, missed office visits with his parole officer, and was unsuccessfully terminated from Maryhaven.

Though Swerlein quickly admitted to the violations, he didn’t quite agree with the sentence offered by the county prosecutor’s office.

“He’s been given every opportunity,” stated assistant prosecutor Ryan Hoovler, who argued that Swerlein did not have a clean history on community control and recommended the full 12-month prison sentence. “I believe this time is just the last straw.”

Andrew Motter, Swerlein’s attorney, pointed out that heroin was a very difficult and serious drug, one that attracted users for the first time and continued to attract those who have used before. He added that his client simply wanted the structure of a court program to help keep him clean.

“I’m really trying,” Swerlein said to Leuthold. “It doesn’t look like it but I’m really trying.”

Leuthold, who had settled back in his chair and watched Swerlein with a lowered brow, said he had sat in the back of the courtroom on the day that Swerlein graduated from the first class of the drug court program earlier this year. He was concerned at the time that Swerlein did not grasp the seriousness of his problem.

“There’s one word that I don’t want to hear – is try,” Leuthold told Swerlein, “You either do or you don’t. You either succeed or you fail.”

Leuthold added that Swerlein should have never graduated from the drug court program, which at the time was still under the purview of former Common Pleas Court Judge Russell Wiseman.

Despite all that, Leuthold still felt that Swerlein was not a lost cause. Leuthold sentenced Swerlein to eight months in prison rather than the full 12 months for violating his community control. He warned Swerlein that his motivation should be to never violate community control again or the judge would return him to prison for an even longer sentence.

“There’s only one person that is going to get you out. That’s you,” Leuthold told Swerlein before releasing him to be transported to prison.

Twenty-one-year-old Justin Noel pleaded guilty to unlawful sexual conduct with a minor. The Bucyrus man received the maximum sentence on the fourth-degree felony – an 18 month prison stay – mainly due to the facts in the case Judge Leuthold stated. Noel had sex with a 14-year-old girl that resulted in the birth of a child.

Noel must now registered with his county sheriff as a Tier I sex offender annually for the next 15 years.