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Home > Blogs > Dayton Courts: Legal and crime news > Archives > 2010 > July
July 2010
Former Wilberforce employee ordered to pay restitution for computer thefts
DAYTON — A former Wilberforce University, who admitted stealing computer equipment purchased with a federal grant, was ordered Thursday, July 29, to pay $12,614 in restitution to the U.S. Department of Energy.
U.S. District Judge Thomas M. Rose also placed James Marshall on two years probation, including the provision that he must serve 100 hours of community service in the first year. The Department of Energy suspended Marshall from doing any type of contract work with any branch of the federal government, according to Carter M. Stewart, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio.
Marshall, 28, pleaded guilty on April 26, 2010 to one felony count of theft of government property.
The university received a grant from the U.S. Department of Energy in 2005 to create an advanced disaster modeling and simulation laboratory. Marshall began to work on the grant in October 2005, eventually becoming Strategic Director of Research and Information Systems for the grant. In this position, Marshall was responsible for procuring all computer hardware and software for the grant, according to court records.
The grant budget for July 2005 through July 2006 included $200,000 for high speed networking and simulation laboratory; $30,000 for high resolution projector and screen; $100,000 for simulation software; $50,000 for statistical software; $110,900 for high speed computers and laptops; and $100,000 for software development and expert system shells. In November 2005, Marshall instructed vendors to ship merchandise directly to him, according to court records.
In March 2007, the Wilberforce Information and Technology Department staff conducted a preliminary visual inventory of equipment located in the Lab. They discovered approximately 103 hard drives and other computer equipment missing from the Lab, according to court records.
The staff also determined that some of the same items were observed being sold on an eBay site belonging to Marshall. The university dismissed Marshall after the theft was discovered, according to court records.
The university dismissed Marshall after the theft was discovered.
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Durig death ruled a homicide
TROY — The death of Caleb Durig, the eight-month-old boy who died Monday, was ruled a homicide after an autopsy Tuesday, July 27.
The Miami County Coroner’s Office found that the boy died from multiple blunt force trauma, said Troy police Capt. Chris Anderson.
Anderson said authorities don’t know how long the boy had been dead when his mother called 911.
The boy’s parents, Jason, 29, and Tara, 27, of 1251 Hilltop Drive, have both been arrested and booked into the Miami County Jail. Both are charged with child endangering.
» Listen to Tara Durig’s 911 call
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Dead baby’s father served prison time for scalding another child
TROY - Jason E. Durig, the Troy man charged with child endangering in connection with the death of his 8-month-old son, served 16 months in prison for scalding another baby in a bath.
“You should never have custody of another child in your entire life,” Miami County Common Pleas Judge Robert Lindeman told Durig during his June 2007 sentencing.
Durig, 29, and his wife, Tara, 27, of 1251 Hilltop Drive, were both arrested and charged after their son Caleb was found dead Monday, July 26. A Miami County Municipal Judge set $50,000 bonds for both of them Tuesday morning.
Jason Durig was sentenced to 18 months in prison after he pleaded guilty to child endangering in 2007. According to police, he poured hot water on a one-month-old’s back, burning his back and buttocks. The child was treated for second-degree burns at Children’s Medical Center.
Durig was also convicted of tampering with evidence and theft in unrelated cases. Given 40 days jail credit, he entered prison in July 2007 and was released in November 2008, said JoEllen Smith, spokeswoman for the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction.
Lindeman noted that the burns occurred “at least one to two days” before doctors examined the boy.
Durig told Lindeman that the remarks in the medical report were “not true” and that he called the child’s pediatrician for guidance, who told him to take the child to Children’s. Instead, the Durigs took the boy to Upper Valley Medical Center near Troy because they didn’t have gas money to get to Dayton, Durig told Lindeman.
“I didn’t know what to do,” Durig told Lindeman. “What I am guilty of, basically, is being inexperienced.”
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Baby Vanessa: Mills wants his mom to raise girl
DAYTON — The father of Baby Vanessa says his mother is willing to raise his daughter, according to a statement released by his attorney Monday, July 26.
Benjamin Mills, 39, of Dayton maintains that he never consented to the adoption of Vanessa, who lives with her adoptive mother, Stacey Doss, 45, in California. Mills has three children with Andrea Conley, 31, who lives in Riverside. Conley supports Doss’ efforts to finalize the adoption.
Mills’ mother, Rena Jordan, has had legal custody of Mills’ two other children with Conley since 2008, according to the statement released by Legal Aid of Western Ohio attorney Elizabeth Gorman, who represents Mills.
That statement also quotes Cristy Oakes, who represents Jordan. Oakes’ statement identifies Jordan as a retired school teacher.
“At this time, Ms. Jordan is ready, willing and able to take custody of her granddaughter,” Oakes said. “She wants to raise her granddaughter with her two siblings in a loving, caring environment.
Gorman said that Mills wants to start a relationship with Vanessa and to bond with her family. She also said that Mills and Jordan both believe that “the custody issues involving their daughter and granddaughter are private and should be resolved in the court and not in the media.”
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Baby Vanessa: Birth mom files for protection order against Mills
DAYTON — Baby Vanessa’s birth mother, who is supporting the child’s adoption, filed a petition for a domestic violence civil protection order on Friday, July 23, against the child’s father, Benjamin Mills, Jr.
The petition, filed by Andrea Conley, states that she was downtown in the Greater Dayton Regional Transit Authority hub when Mills came up behind her and grabbed her. He let her loose after she screamed, and she had someone escort her to her bus, according to the sworn statement she gave.
“Benjamin still stayed outside the bus trying to talk to me,” Conley wrote. “I was fearful and scared that he could of followed the bus and was going to grab me when I got off at my stop.”
No incident report was filed with Dayton Police Department, and Mills does not currently face criminal charges in relation with the allegation. The civil protection order is civil, though violating one can lead to criminal charges.
Conley, 31, and Mills, 29, have a long history of agitating each other. Both have been convicted of domestic violence against each other — in Mills case, it was a felony that resulted in state prison time. Both have had prior protection orders against each other, according to police and court records.
In December 2007, Conley pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor count of violating Mills’ protection order against her. In August 2008, she pleaded guilty to three felony counts of violating his protection order.
Mills is currently fighting for custody of Vanessa with Stacey Doss the California woman who adopted her.
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Former CJ coach Marc Greenberg reaches plea agreement
DAYTON — Federal prosecutors have reached a plea agreement with Marc Greenberg, the former Chaminade Julienne girls basketball coach charged with sending obscene material to minors over the internet.
The plea agreement, filed late Thursday afternoon, July 15, is under seal. However, a bill of information also filed late Thursday shows that Greenberg will plead to two charges: — one count of having computer equipment that contained visual depictions involving the use of a minor engaging in sexually explicit conduct. — one count of knowingly using the interest to attempt to transfer obscene matter to a person under the age of 16.
The bill of information notes that Greenberg communicated with an undercover agent, which he believed was a 13-year-old girl, directing the agent to view streaming video from his web camera, which depicted an adult male exposing his penis while masturbating.
A bill of information can only be filed if a defendant has waived indictment and is often used in plea agreements.
Greenberg, of Centerville, was originally charged with 12 counts of using the Internet to transmit obscene material to persons younger than 16. His trial was to start Monday, July 12, but that day lawyers on both side filed a joint motion to continue so that the parties could continue plea negotations.
No date has been set for a plea hearing, but Greenberg is scheduled to have a hearing on the trial continuance Monday, July 19, in the courtroom of U.S. District Judge Thomas M. Rose.
Greenberg, who is a local attorney, led the team to a state title in 2005, but resigned after federal agents arrested him May 4, 2009, at his Kettering law office.
He has been on home detention since early May, and has been ordered to wear an ankle bracelet to electronically monitor his whereabouts. He is allowed to leave the house to go to work, meet with his attorney or seek court-ordered mental health evaluation and treatment.
Authorities claim Greenberg used computers at his office and his home to engage in sexual conversation and to transmit obscene images, including videos of himself masturbating. Investigators allege the Centerville resident conducted at least 63 lurid computer chat room conversations between January and April 2009 with several investigators posing as teenage and preteen girls.
According to a bio posted on his law firm’s website, Greenberg graduated from the University of Dayton in 1999 with a bachelor’s in business administration and is a 2003 graduate of the UD School of Law, with honors.
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Wehner named Montgomery County Public Defender
DAYTON - Rudy Wehner, who has served as acting Montgomery County Public Defender since March, was named to the job permanently Wednesday, July 14.
Wehner replaces Glen Dewar, who has been on paid suspension since March 19. Wehner was deputy director under Dewar.
The five-person public defender’s commission voted unanimously June 9 not to renew Dewar’s contract, which ends in late July. The same body voted unanimously Wednesday to appoint Wehner to the position on a one-year contract.
Wehner will make $92,500. Commissioner Steve Dankof said they offered him “substantially more money” but Wehner declined.
“I think that speaks volumes about the kind of person he is,” Dankof said.
Other commissioners, including chair Dianne Marx and Gary Leppla, praised Wehner for bringing stability to the office and rebuilding relationships with the “customers,” including the Dayton Municipal Court judges, who had discussed not renewing the city’s contract with the office.
“I think he is everything we could hope for,” Leppla said.
Public defender staff broke into applause after the motion passed.
Wehner, 58, is an Archbishop Alter High School graduate who received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Dayton in 1973 and his law degree from the University of Cincinnati in 1976. He started at the public defender’s office as a clerk while in law school, joined the office as a staff attorney in 1976 and left as deputy director in 1980.
After years in private practice, Wehner returned to the office as deputy director in November 2007. Commissioners said his experience as a defense attorney, both in and out of the public defender’s office, would be invaluable.
Wehner said he plans to continue handling cases on the office’s docket rotation in addition to his administrative duties. He is currently assigned to the docket of Montgomery County Common Pleas Judge Michael T. Hall. He said it was important to stay active in the courts, “to go out and see what your lawyers are going through.”
Dewar had been the county’s public defender since 2000. He had been at the center of several controversies this year, including a number of computer purchases that were the subject of an audit. The county auditor found that the office deliberately evaded county procedures for those purchases and entered an invalid contract for internet service.
In December, Administrative Judge Carl S. Henderson signed an order that said the docket of newly appointed Judge Deirdre E. Logan was too congested. That order suspended the appointment of assistant public defenders to cases on Logan’s docket.
Henderson wrote then: “Due to the number of cases assigned to the Public Defender’s office, it is unlikely that the public defenders can adequately and efficiently prepare a proper defense, which may result in prejudice to the defendants.”
Wehner told the commissioners last month that the public defender’s office returned to Logan’s docket on May 17.
The Public Defender’s Office, which provides legal services to indigent criminal defendants, employed 75 people in 2007, according to payroll records.
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Springfield business owner sentenced to prison over employees’ taxes
DAYTON — A Springfield business owner who pocketed $220,000 of his employees’ payroll taxes was sentenced Friday, July 9, to six months in federal prison.
U.S. District Senior Judge Walter H. Rice also sentenced Richard Albrecht, Jr., to three years of supervised release, of which the first four months will be spent on electronic monitoring. Albrecht must also pay restitution to the IRS and serve 100 hours of community service.
“Employers who fail to remit withheld employment taxes to the IRS are not only enriching themselves, they are creating financial problems for their employees,” said Jose A. Gonzalez, Special Agent in Charge, IRS, Criminal Investigation.
Albrecht, 53, of Yellow Springs, pleaded guilty Nov. 6 to one count of willful failure to collect and pay employment taxes to the IRS.
Rice ordered Albrecht to surrender to federal authorities on Oct. 1.
Between 2001 and February 2008, Albrecht owned a rigging company that operated under the names of Automotive Component Systems LLC, R&J Rigging and RCSI Inc. in and around Springfield, according to court documents.
He took the taxes from his employees’ paychecks and knowingly failed to pay the IRS, specifically for the third quarter of 2003 through the fourth quarter of 2005, according to court documents.
Rice ordered Albrecht to pay $20,000 of the amount due to the IRS within sixty days of the termination of his supervised release.
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Former Bullies owner ordered to pay back taxes to IRS
DAYTON - The former owner of Bullies, a bar in Piqua, was placed on six months home confinement Friday, July 9, and ordered to pay nearly $50,000 to the IRS.
Michael Preuss, 51, of Troy, was also placed on five years probation, including the confinement, under the sentence issued by U.S. District Judge Thomas M. Rose.
Preuss pleaded guilty April 13 to to one count of corrupt endeavor to impede an employee of the U.S. acting in an official capacity under the IRS laws. He fabricated a false release form for his bank account which had been levied by the IRS for collection of unpaid withholding taxes, according to court records. Pruess was the sole owner of Bullies. At the time he sold the bar in October 2006, he owed the IRS $49,900 in back employee withholding taxes, according to court documents. Preuss deposited the proceeds from the sale of Bullies into his wife’s checking account. The IRS subsequently filed a tax levy for collection of the unpaid withholding taxes against that Chase account, along with another account in Preuss’s name at Fifth Third Bank, according to court documents.
Preuss legally obtained a release of the levy on his Fifth Third account but then used that release form to fabricate a fraudulent release. He faxed the phony to Chase Bank, which released the levied funds from his wife’s account. Preuss then directed his wife to liquidate the released funds that same day in the form of cash and official bank checks, according to court documents.
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