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County worker gets two years in cocaine
case
By CHRISTOPHER BOBBY
POSTED: March 25, 2010
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WARREN - The Trumbull County employee who, along with his
boss, was busted for cocaine was sentenced Wednesday to two years in prison.
Kenneth Greep, 59, of Vienna, said nothing after pleading guilty to four
counts of trafficking cocaine and receiving the agreed-to mandatory sentence
handed down by Common Pleas Judge W. Wyatt McKay.
Though he had served time in a federal prison previously for drug sales,
Greep was given certain considerations since he helped authorities arrest
former Job and Family Services Director Thomas Mahoney, Assistant prosecutor
Chris Becker said. Mahoney, who hired Greep, was fired and remains on
probation after pleading guilty to felony drug possession.
Without the cooperation, Greep could have faced more than 10 years behind
bars.
''We discussed the plea with (narcotics officers), and they approved. He (Greep)
helped weed out Mahoney in this case,'' Becker said. ''The defendant was
friends with Mahoney before he was hired.''
The plea also calls for Greep to forfeit $2,200 that was confiscated when
agents with Trumbull-Ashtabula Group (TAG) Law Enforcement Task Force raided
his Pleasant Valley Road home March 18, 2009, after making three previous
undercover cocaine buys.
Greep and his attorney Gary Rich pointed out in court that authorities were
still holding a collector-type flintlock rifle, which will be returned to
Greep. Becker pointed out that even though Greep is an ex-convict and is not
allowed to legally possess of firearm, the flintlock is exempt under the
law.
Rich, meanwhile, said that even though it's tough to accept any client
getting prison time, the considerations allowed for a plea agreement to be
reached.
Greep had been employed doing intermittent clerical-related work at JFS
since October of 2008 for $9 an hour. At the time of Greep's arrest,
Mahoney, then-JFS director, said Greep was well liked and never came to work
under any influence. Mahoney hired Greep under a ''Second Chance Program,''
designed to help get ex-convicts temporary jobs and work experience.
Mahoney was fired within a week after Greep's arrest. Then the department
head was arrested.
Mahoney, 56, was on his way to avoiding a criminal record when he pleaded
guilty Aug. 20 to a fifth-degree felony charge of possession of drugs.
Another judge granted Mahoney's request for intervention in lieu of
conviction, meaning Mahoney could have gone through a one- to three-year
abeyance program after a certain amount of time in rehabilitation. If
Mahoney completed the program, the charge would have been dismissed.
But the former official was charged with a probation violation after testing
positive in two drug screenings.
The former JFS head was then forced to plead guilty to the original charge
and placed on four years probation and ordered to perform 200 hours of
community service.
Greep cooperated with authorities to the point of allowing telephone calls
he had with Mahoney to be recorded. Mahoney admitted on tapes last summer to
buying cocaine from Greep.
Transcripts of the tapes tell a story of Mahoney advising Greep on which
attorney to retain and concerns by Mahoney that his name had been found on a
ledger confiscated inside Greep's Vienna home when deputies raided it.
The two discussed and agreed that Mahoney's reason for visiting Greep's
house could be that he was doing Greep's taxes for him.
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