Staff photo / Ed Runyan Austintown Township trustees, from left, Monica Deavers and Robert Santos, are seen at the meeting table Monday during the trustees meeting. Steve Kent’s chair, at left, was empty.

AUSTINTOWN — Township trustees are expected this morning to appoint longtime former township administrator Michael Dockry to fulfill the remaining term of Trustee Steve Kent, who is being removed from office after being convicted this week of a third-degree felony crime.

Trustees will hold a special meeting at 11 a.m. to appoint an interim trustee to replace Steve Kent. Kent’s term was set to end this year, and several candidates already have filed to run for the seat in the November election. Neither Kent nor Dockry were among those who filed to run for the seat.

Kent was convicted Monday of tampering with evidence following his trial in Mahoning Common Pleas Court. Kent, who had been accused of having an inappropriate sexual relationship with a student at Poland Seminary High School, where he also had worked as a school resource officer, was tried on three sexual battery charges and the tampering with evidence charge. A jury acquitted Kent on the sex charges, but convicted him on the tampering with evidence charge.

Mahoning County Prosecutor Gina DeGenova said after reviewing Ohio Revised Code and conferring with the Ohio Attorney General’s office, her office determined Kent’s conviction automatically renders him “incompetent to hold office.”

“Since a jury returned a verdict finding Steve Kent guilty of a felony, he was rendered incompetent to hold his position of Austintown Township trustee at that time. His office is now vacant.”

Austintown Township Administrator Mark D’Apolito said the person appointed by trustees will serve the remainder of Kent’s term, until a new trustee is elected in November and sworn in.

D’Apolito declined to speculate on who the board would appoint, but Dockry is expected to fill the seat. Dockry confirmed that on Tuesday.

“I expect them to appoint me at tomorrow’s meeting,” he said. “It’s only going to be four and a half months and, based on my experience, I don’t expect anything that surprises me to come before the board in that time.”

One of the candidates on the ballot for the trustee seat, Brenda Rider, said the conversation about possibly replacing Kent after a conviction has been ongoing for some time and Dockry’s name has been part of that discussion.

“They needed someone with experience who also did not want to run for the seat,” she said. “So that’s when Mike was approached and he said he would serve.”

Dockry has more than 30 years of experience in township government, and Rider said he postponed his retirement to help new Trustees Monica Deavers and Robert Santos as well as his successor, D’Apolito, get acclimated to their roles.

Dockry retired in July. He started as a clerk with the township April 1, 1992. He went on to become the township administrator and worked for the township for decades.

The candidates seeking the post in November are Rider, Bruce N. Shepas, Eric J. Vereb, Warren “Bo” Pritchard, Andrea Paventi and Michael P. Cefalde.

Jurors acquitted Kent on three counts of sexual battery stemming from allegations that he forced a student at Poland Seminary High School to perform a sex act in 2021, while he was a Poland Township police officer and the school’s resource officer.

During the trial, prosecutors provided evidence that Kent performed a factory reset on his phone just one day after he was made aware that the student’s claims would be reported to police.