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YOUNGSTOWN -- Jamie J. Longnecker pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity Tuesday when he was arraigned on two additional charges connected to alleged harassment of neighbors.
His attorney, Maxwell Hiltner, appeared with Longnecker in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court. His client pleaded not guilty to a new charge of menacing by stalking and one of misdemeanor intimidation.
Longnecker, 47, of Berlin Center, was indicted on the two new charges last week. He is also still under indictment on 50 counts of menacing by stalking that were filed against him in 2021. In those charges, prosecutors alleged he used the mail to send adult pornography to targeted people -- all family members of a young woman who worked with Longnecker at a restaurant where he was a dishwasher.
The pornography was intended to cause distress to them, the Mahoning County Prosecutor's Office stated in a news release. Longnecker was alleged to have become "obsessed" with the girl when she didn't befriend him, prosecutors said.
Mahoning County Magistrate Nicole Alexander accepted Longnecker's not guilty plea and ordered Longnecker to remain in the Mahoning County jail. She did not set bond for Longnecker, instead indicating that the issue should be decided by Judge Anthony D'Apolito, who is presiding over Longnecker's cases.
Hiltner filed a motion Friday with Judge D'Apolito asking that the judge allow Longnecker to make bail in his 2021 case. D'Apolito revoked Longnecker's bail April 3 as a result of Longnecker's new charges, which prosecutors have said involve a previous alleged stalking victim.
Hiltner's motion states that prosecutors violated a plea offer made to Longnecker by indicting him on the new charges. The plea agreement called for immunity from prosecution on the new charges if Longnecker accepted the plea agreement, Hiltner's filing states.
Longnecker "accepted that plea offer," and prosecutors "should be held to its plea agreement," the filing states. Hiltner's motion also says the two new charges are not sufficient to justify revocation of Longnecker's bond.
The filing adds that the new charges relate to an investigation of a complaint from Sept. 22, 2022, that Longnecker placed a pickle jar near the mailbox of his neighbors.
Prosecutors offered Longnecker a plea offer Feb.2 in which he was to plead guilty to two counts of menacing by stalking, and Longnecker agreed Feb. 16, the Hiltner motion states.
The motion alleges that the plea agreement is "contractual in nature," and is an "enforceable contract." It asks D'Apolito to enforce the plea agreement. D'Apolito has not yet ruled on the motion.
erunyan@vindy.com