LISBON — A Boardman schools music teacher has pleaded guilty to drug charges that originated from a human trafficking bust.

Robert Pavalko, 45, of Youngstown, pleaded guilty on Tuesday in Columbiana County Common Pleas Court to one count of aggravated drug possession, a fifth-degree felony. Judge Megan Bickerton sentenced him to a three-year drug treatment plan, under the authority of the Columbiana County Adult Probation Department.

Should he violate the terms of the program, he will face jail time.

A music teacher at Boardman High School and Boardman Center Intermediate School, Pavalko was placed on paid administrative leave.

Boardman Local School District did not respond for comment.

Pavalko was arrested in August in East Palestine, charged with aggravated drug possession and permitting drug abuse. The arrest came amid a sting operation by the Mahoning County Human Trafficking Task Force, in which Logan Larlham, 26, of Boardman also was arrested.

When Larlham, a Tier 2 Sex offender, failed to register when he moved from Youngstown to Boardman, a warrant was issued for his arrest.

Unrelated to that warrant, the task force was working to catch predators who used a known prostitution website, with undercover officers posing as underage girls. Larlham was not the target of the sting, but he is the one who responded to the task force’s post.

At the time, Task Force Commander Maj. Jeffrey Allen of the Mahoning County Sheriff’s Office, said Larlham believed that he was conversing online with a girl who was willing to come to his room at the Boardman Inn motel on Market Street, and he said he would get her a room for her to conduct her business in exchange for her sending johns to buy drugs from him.

Pavalko was Larlham’s driver. Both men were arrested upon arrival by East Palestine Police, who work closely on a regular basis with the task force.

Larlham was charged with four felony counts – attempting to promote prostitution, aggravated drug possession, drug trafficking and possession of criminal tools.

Larlham pleaded guilty Tuesday to all four counts, and Judge Scott Washam sentenced him to between 10 and 12 months on each count, to run concurrently, giving him credit for 132 days already served. Washam also fined Larlham at least $10,000 and ordered him to register as a Tier 1 sex offender.

Following his release, he will have to register annually for 15 years in addition to his registration every 180 days for 25 years for his existing Tier 2 status.

A TROUBLING HISTORY

Larlham was first arrested in May 2017 for unlawful sexual conduct with a minor. Records from Stow Municipal Court show that he lived on Longcoy Avenue in Kent at the time he was charged with three misdemeanor counts. Those charges were merged into one, to which he pleaded guilty on Sept. 6, 2017. Judge Lisa Coates sentenced Larlham to 180 days with 138 suspended, and he ultimately served only 12 days in Macedonia City Jail, and was ordered to have no contact with the victim or other minors.

In February 2018, he was ordered not to violate certain terms of his probation any further, but on May 15 was ordered back to jail for 138 days for repeated violations. However, Coates ordered him released in August of that year.

He was arrested on the same charge in Ravenna on Jan. 8, 2020, this time for a felony count. Allen said Larlham allowed a 15-year-old runaway to stay at his home and had sexual contact with her while she was there.

On June 9, 2020, he was sentenced to 36 months at the Northeast Ohio Correctional Facility on Hubbard Road. Records show he served most of it, and his five-year parole began Jan. 7, 2023.

The Mahoning County Human Trafficking Task Force is led by Mahoning County Sheriff’s Office and includes resources from the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation, New Waterford Police Department, Cortland Police Department, Austintown Police Department, Youngstown Police Department, the Ohio Investigative Unit and the Ohio State Highway Patrol.