Common Pleas

New Cases

Kimberly Dixon, Pancake Clarkson Road, Rogers, vs. Geoffrey Dixon, East Liverpool; divorce sought.

Kallie Sue Hormell, Prospect Street Extension, Salem, vs. Donald Hormell, Akron; divorce sought.

Scott Lodge, Lexington Avenue, Salem, vs. Mindy Lodge, Orlando, Fla.; divorce sought.

MidFirst Bank, Oklahoma City, Okla., vs. Jeffrey Walter, Columbiana-Lisbon Road, Columbiana, et al.; mortgage foreclosure sought for Columbiana-Lisbon Road, Columbiana property.

Rocket Mortgage, LLC, Detroit, Mich., vs. David Pratt, Union Street, Columbiana, et al.; mortgage foreclosure sought for Columbiana County property.

Docket Entries

Lakeview Loan Servicing, LLC vs. Stephanie Lambert, et al.; mortgage foreclosure ordered for Homeworth Road, Alliance property.

County Treasurer vs. Bridget Melvin; delinquent property taxes paid, case dismissed.

Municipal

LISBON — In Columbiana County Municipal Court, a preliminary hearing was set June 5 for Jeremiah R. Dick, 20, Cuyahoga Falls, charged with fourth-degree felony unlawful sexual conduct with a minor for allegedly engaging in sexual conduct with a 15-year-old girl in the back seat of a vehicle at the Cherry Valley Coke Ovens park in Leetonia on May 18.

Shane Robert Murphy, 19, Steubenville Pike Road, Lisbon, was fined $400 and given a suspended 180-day jail term for misdemeanor attempted vandalism amended from fifth-degree felony vandalism, and two counts of misdemeanor assault. Murphy assaulted another man and a pregnant woman on April 5 in Center Township and punched and kicked the woman’s vehicle leaving dents. He was ordered to complete 25 hours community service and was ordered to make restitution in amounts of $7,710 and $6,142 to the victims.

Jerrad Rydarowicz, 45, Fork Road, Leetonia, was fined $150 for disorderly conduct amended from domestic violence at the request of the prosecutor with the adult victim’s consent. He was accused of grabbing a woman by the front of her coat and shoving her and wrestling with her to take her cell phone on Jan. 13 in Leetonia.

Amber Cataldo, 32, Riverside Avenue, Wellsville, was fined $1,350 and sentenced to 180 days in the county jail, with 135 days suspended and credit for three days served, leaving a balance of 42 days still to serve in jail for endangering children, making false claims, two counts of theft, three counts of confinement of dangerous dog and two counts of dangerous dog. She was ordered to complete 75 hours community service, to make restitution of $1,069 to Walmart, to stay out of the Calcutta Walmart, to have no companion animals and to complete a parenting course. The cases stemmed from different incidents in 2023, with one in 2022. On Aug. 26, 2023, Salem police located four children playing around a vehicle in the parking lot at Shoe Sensation and learned the mother was inside the store shopping and unaware the children were out of the vehicle playing in the parking lot or with police. Several of the charges related to her dog being loose and designated as a dangerous dog, with the dog running at large and biting a minor on March 28, 2023, coming into a yard and knocking down a 4-year-old child on April 26, 2023, running loose near the Crystal Lounge on Sept. 21, 2023 and biting a Wellsville police officer who was attempting to arrest a man for domestic violence on Oct. 10, 2023. She was supposed to surrender the dog to the Columbiana County Dog Warden on Oct. 30, 2023 and claimed the dog ran away on Oct, 29, 2023 and had not been back. The false claim charge stemmed from Cataldo claiming a man choked her twice on Oct. 10, 2023, but then on Oct. 19, 2023, writing a letter that she lied about him choking her and that it didn’t happen. On Oct. 21, 2023, she failed to scan and pay for 72 items totaling $814 at the Calcutta Walmart and on May 11, 2022 she and another woman failed to scan and pay for 13 items totaling $215 at the Calcutta Walmart.

A pretrial was set May 29 for Paul M. Smith, 30, Tomahawk Drive, Negley, East North Avenue, East Palestine, charged with two counts of endangering children and single counts of obstructing justice, operating a vehicle impaired first offense and failure to yield. On May 19 in East Palestine, he put two children at risk when they were outside naked allegedly in the roadway and he was located inside in the attic of the home by police. With no one to watch the children, he was told to come to the police station after another adult came home, but then he didn’t, so police went to his home and found him hiding in a closet. He was fined $50 for possessing marijuana when he was a passenger during a traffic stop on July 27, 2019 in Salem. The OVI and other traffic charge stem from a traffic stop on Aug. 24, 2024 in Salem Township.

Nicholas Charles Poore, 32, Canfield, was fined $450 and given a suspended 180-day jail term for possessing criminal tools and disorderly conduct amended from engaging in prostitution. He was ordered to complete 20 hours community service and an online 12-hour prostitution prevention course. On Oct. 9, 2024, Poore responded to an undercover ad on a known prostitution social media website and solicited sexual activity from an undercover officer, arriving in St. Clair Township for the meeting,

Clifford Lake, 42, Newgarden Avenue, Salem, was fined $100 and sentenced to 10 days in jail, with credit for four days served, leaving a balance of six days to serve in jail for a charge of failure to vacate unit for still living in a condemned structure in Salem on Oct. 25, 2024 after a notice of condemnation was posted on the home on Sept. 6 and Sept. 13 in 2024.

Bradley Reeder, 43, West Lincoln Way, Lisbon, was fined $350 and given a suspended 90-day jail term for driving under suspension, failure to display valid sticker and illegal use or possession of drug paraphernalia for possessing a clear baggie with an unknown white substance and a paper fold containing a crystal-like substance that field tested positive for cocaine during a traffic stop in Lisbon on Dec. 28, 2024.

John McCallister, 54, Fairview Court, Salem, was fined $200 and given a suspended 30-day jail term for illegal use or possession of drug paraphernalia. He was ordered to complete 20 hours community service. He possessed a small baggy with an unknown white substance during a traffic stop on Jan. 26 in Salem.

A pretrial was set July 14 for Nika Lewis, 22, Green Valley Drive, Salem, charged with OVI first offense, OVI breath first offense and marked lanes.

Elizabeth Mary Shultz, 35, West Ninth Street, East Liverpool, was fined $825 for a tail lights violation, speeding and three counts driving under suspension.

A charge of driving onto road from place other than roadway was dismissed against Susan Bailey, 76, Chester, W.Va.

Matthew Matiste, 19, Poland, was fined $100 for an equipment violation amended from speeding.

Michael Stockman, 55, Woodland Avenue, Columbiana, was fined $100 for an equipment violation amended from marked lanes.

Court News

LISBON — An East Palestine woman accused of using fraud to get money from Norfolk Southern in 2023 had her treatment plan for her case revoked for violating the terms.

Lauren Dilworth, 30, Park Avenue, appeared recently in Columbiana County Common Pleas Court for a probation violation hearing.

She was ordered to serve 45 days in the county jail, but received credit for 45 days already served in jail and was ordered released. She was placed on community control.

She had been originally sentenced in February after pleading guilty to fourth-degree felonies of grand theft and falsification in a theft offense. She had been accused of submitting fictitious receipts to Norfolk Southern for reimbursement for lodging, food and fuel when she was not displaced by the train derailment. The amount allegedly received by fraudulent means totaled $18,840 from March 21, 2023 through May 6, 2023.

Also in Common Pleas Court:

— Bradly Rymer, 64, Millegeville, Ga., was sentenced to six months in prison for eight counts of passing bad checks, a fourth-degree felony, but was given credit for 271 days already served, meaning his prison term for the charges was finished. He appeared via video conferencing from the Georgia Department of Corrections where he’s in custody. The three cases for passing bad checks dated back to 1990. He wrote a letter to the court in April asking to resolve the three cases.

— Timothy Franklin Gibbs, 37, College Street, East Liverpool, pleaded guilty to fifth-degree felony breaking and entering, with sentencing set for June 4. A charge of complicity in the commission of an offense will be dismissed. Gibbs was accused of trespassing in the Craft Treasurers & Boutique store in East Liverpool on Oct. 24, 2024, aiding and abetting others in the theft of $1,365 worth of money and goods.