Ex-Trumbull JFS chief put on probation for drug use

Tom Mahoney was convicted of cocaine possession and has a felony criminal record.

By Ed Runyan

WARREN — Tom Mahoney, former Trumbull County Department of Job and Family Services director, gets another chance to get clean from drugs — or he goes to prison for up to 12 months.

Judge John M. Stuard of Trumbull County Common Pleas Court on Thursday sentenced Mahoney to four years’ probation, 200 hours of community service, took his driver’s license for six months and told Mahoney that if he fails to complete drug and alcohol treatment this time or otherwise violates the terms of probation, he could go to prison for up to 12 months.

Mahoney, 56, of Girard, who earned $107,344 per year and supervised 261 employees at the agency on North Park Avenue that serves low-income residents, told Judge Stuard that being head of Job and Family Services put him under a great deal of stress, and that led to his drug addiction.

“It’s taken everything from me, Judge,” Mahoney said of his drug problem and the criminal charge of cocaine possession that resulted from a narcotics investigation in March.

“I was under a lot of pressure. I was asked to do a lot of things by my employer. I’ve been under an awful lot of stress, but I do own up to the mistakes I’ve made,” Mahoney said.

The JFS director is hired by the county commissioners.

Mahoney was offered a chance to avoid this type of sentencing and have a clean record through a provision of Ohio law called treatment in lieu of conviction that requires the offender to complete a 12-month drug treatment program.

He used cocaine while on the program, however, and treatment in lieu of conviction was revoked, resulting in Thursday’s sentencing.

His attorney, Michael Bowler of Akron, noted that this is the first time Mahoney has been in trouble with the law, and he “slipped off the wagon” because of a problem with depression.

“He has adjusted his meds. He’s back on good meds, doing well,” Bowler said. “He’s lost everything because of this fifth-degree felony — his job, his insurance and so forth.”

County commissioners fired Mahoney in March after investigators with the Trumbull Ashtabula Group Law Enforcement Task Force charged a temporary JFS worker, Kenneth Greep, 46, of Vienna, with drug trafficking.

Greep helped investigators tape-record a conversation between Greep and Mahoney in which Mahoney indicates he bought cocaine from Greep.

Mahoney is now a convicted felon, such as several other county employees who have stood before a judge recently, including former sheriff employees Peter Pizzulo and Anthony Leshnack, who stole money from a fund-raising organization; and former county commissioner James Tsagaris, who committed mail fraud for not reporting a $36,551 loan from a businessman.

runyan@vindy.com