YOUNGSTOWN — Kip T. Danks, 59, of Poland, a former deputy with the Mahoning County Sheriff’s Office, pleaded guilty Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Cleveland to misprision of a felony and obstruction of justice and will be sentenced Nov. 19.

According to court records, Danks was arraigned Tuesday on the charges before U.S. District Court Judge Donald C. Nugent and later pleaded guilty to the charges, which were contained in a single criminal count.

A plea agreement was reached with Danks and read in open court, and bond was set at $20,000, which Danks posted. A presentence report will be written on Danks’ background before his sentencing at 10 a.m. Nov. 19 in Cleveland federal court. The hearing took 45 minutes.

Conditions of Danks’ bond are that he must cooperate in the collection of a DNA sample if necessary, advise the court or the federal pretrial services department in writing before making any change of residence or telephone number, appear in court as required, “serve any sentence that the court may impose,” surrender any passport he may have and not travel outside of the northern district of Ohio.

Danks was named in an “information” accusing him of the two offenses after he was recorded on an FBI wiretap talking Jan. 9, 2023, to Youngstown man Hure L. Orr, 61, about a raid on a property on Glenwood Avenue in Youngstown.

Danks began working as a Mahoning County Sheriff’s deputy in June 1997 and retired Jan. 31, 2025, according to Bill Cappabianca, chief deputy for the Mahoning County Sheriff’s Office.

Danks was named in a criminal complaint Jan 10, 2025, alleging that he committed the two offenses. A long affidavit written by an FBI agent in support of the criminal complaint explained the allegations against Danks.

AFFIDAVIT

It states that in July 2021, the FBI and Mahoning Valley Law Enforcement Task Force began investigating Orr about the drug organization he operated in the Youngstown area.

An investigation established that between July 2022 and around Feb. 2, 2023, Orr trafficked controlled substances, the affidavit states. For instance, the FBI obtained court-authorized wiretaps on multiple cellphone numbers, including a device used by Orr, that confirmed that Orr sold controlled substances.

On Jan. 9, 2023, law enforcement officers executed a search warrant at a location on Glenwood Avenue on Youngstown’s South Side from which an associate of Orr sold drugs, it states. During a search, investigators located a handgun and a bag containing what lab results confirmed to be methamphetamine and fentanyl.

About 3:51 p.m. that day, investigators used a court-authorized wiretap and intercepted a call over Orr’s phone between Orr and a person whose voice the FBI agent recognized as being that of Danks, who was working as a deputy with the sheriff’s office.

During the call, Orr asked Danks questions about the warrant that was served at the Glenwood location that morning, such as why it did not list a person who made allegations of criminal conduct involving that location.

Danks told Orr he did not know, but he could “see what I can find out.” Orr told Danks the investigators took a car belonging to Orr, but said another man had been driving it, and the investigators found a gun in it.

“Well it’s my gun. Honest, to be real, it’s my gun that I keep in there just in case,” Orr told Danks, according to the affidavit.

Orr asked Danks if officers were likely to charge him with a weapons offense, and Danks stated that investigators would have to prove it was Orr’s gun before they could charge him.

“You know, it’s just, don’t use the phones,” Danks told Orr, according to the affidavit. “I already, I already know,” Orr responded.

The FBI agent stated in the affidavit that he believes that when Orr told Danks about the firearm found during the search warrant, Danks “provided advice and information to Orr in an attempt to assist Orr in providing false statements and misleading information to law enforcement to help prevent Orr from being charged federally for weapons violations.”

The document states that because Danks was a sheriff’s deputy for about 25 years, Danks “knew that it was illegal for Orr to possess this firearm as a convicted felon. Danks gave advice to Orr that would make it more difficult for law enforcement to charge Orr despite Danks receiving a full, unsolicited confession from Orr that the gun belonged to Orr.”

The FBI agent stated that when Danks told Orr not to use the phones, it appears that Danks was “attempting to provide advice to Orr to help prevent law enforcement from gathering additional evidence on Orr” through wiretaps.

Danks was also formerly assigned to the U.S. Marshal’s Service Fugitive Task Force for about nine years, the affidavit states. In that role, he worked with federal law enforcement agencies, including the FBI, it adds.

A short time after the call, Orr contacted another man and advised him to stay off the phone, the affidavit states. Throughout prior wiretap interceptions, Orr “never expressed concerns over speaking on the phones until Dank’s statement,” the affidavit states.

The affidavit states that Danks contacted another law enforcement officer after his call with Orr and asked for more information about the raid at the Glenwood location. The affidavit states that Danks did so to “gain sensitive, law enforcement information concerning the investigation … and whether federal agents had linked the firearm recovered there to Orr.”

The affidavit stated that the FBI agent also believed that Danks tried to “divert law enforcement’s attention away from Orr and toward” another man, “even though Danks knew that the firearm recovered from the search belonged to Orr.”

The affidavit states that Orr called Danks the next day, and Danks told Orr not to talk to law enforcement. “In short, Danks took affirmative steps to thwart the federal investigation and conceal Orr’s admission of illegal gun possession,” the affidavit states.

In early 2023, Orr spoke with the FBI and admitted that he sold drugs, including cocaine, and that he had multiple sources of drug supply, the affidavit states.

It also describes an Aug. 10, 2023, interview of Danks by federal agents at the Mahoning County Sheriff’s Office in which Danks denied that he told Orr to stay off the phone, saying, “I would never do that.”

Orr was sentenced to 54 months in federal prison in January after pleading guilty to conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute controlled substances for selling drugs for about six months between July 2022 and early February 2023, according to federal prosecutors handling Orr’s federal case.