YOUNGSTOWN — A quiet day at the Mahoning County Courthouse still included some noteworthy activity.

While there were no active trials taking place, several judges held pretrial and sentencing hearings, two involving sex crimes against children.

Susan Molleken, alias Susan Figueroa, 41, of Youngstown, pleaded guilty to one count of rape in Common Pleas Judge Anthony D’Apolito’s courtroom, and will be sentenced at a later date.

Molleken was charged with three other counts of rape and could have faced up to 40 years in prison if convicted.

Molleken was indicted along with co-defendant Christopher Figueroa, 44, of Youngstown, in 2021 for crimes against two juveniles that occurred between 2006 and 2021. Figueroa pleaded guilty to two counts of rape on July 3, and his sentencing hearing is scheduled for July 29. Figueroa also was charged with lower-level felonies in those crimes, including gross sexual imposition and sexual battery, 26 charges in all, and could have faced up to 150 years in prison. Prosecutors dropped the other 24 charges in exchange for the two rape pleas.

TODD PERKINS

In Judge Maureen Sweeney’s court, Todd Perkins, 58, of Youngstown, was set to go on trial for rape of a minor today but told Sweeney he was having difficulty securing legal counsel.

Perkins was represented temporarily by attorney David Betras for the day’s proceedings. Perkins was convicted in February of rape and gross sexual imposition against a child relative. The crimes occurred when the child was 4 years old.

A previous conviction against Perkins was thrown out by the 7th District Court of Appeals after Perkins withdrew a guilty plea and subsequently was convicted for rape against both child victims. He complained that Sweeney refused to allow him to separate the cases so that testimony from one victim would not prejudice the jury against him for the charges related to the other. The panel upheld the appeal and vacated the conviction.

The case was retried in February and Perkins was sentenced to 20 years to life in prison, and ordered to register as a Tier-3 sex offender, should he ever be released. Attorneys John Juhasz and Lynn Maro represented Perkins in that case, but Juhasz filed a motion to withdraw as counsel through the 7th District Court of Appeals, where Perkins hopes to have his conviction overturned again. Atty. John Laczko is representing him in that case, but Perkins said Wednesday that his family was still trying to find him an attorney for the new rape trial.

Sweeney said he was given advance notice of his pending trial, but Perkins said the mail system at the prison where is incarcerated is “terrible” and he only received the notice late last week.

Sweeney continued the case for two weeks to give Perkins time to secure counsel and Betras gave him a business card.

MELVIN LAND

In Judge John Durkin’s courtroom, frequent flier Melvin Land, 29, of Youngstown, pleaded guilty to one count of drug possession, amended to a second-degree felony, down from the first-degree charge of cocaine possession. He also pleaded to a third-degree felony charge of aggravated drug possession. Durkin sentenced him to two to three years on both counts, with sentences to run concurrently. Land has a lengthy criminal history dating back to 2013, mostly drug charges stemming from arrests in Boardman.

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