Officials: Tips lead to arrests; home condemned
EAST LIVERPOOL — City officials said the “See Something, Say Something” campaign recently launched is paying off, and Wednesday it resulted in another house being boarded up and two drug-related arrests.
While responding to tips that residents were living at 1019 Ephraim St. without running water, police officers were en route to the home at 10:56 a.m. when they saw the tenant drive by in a vehicle with a cracked windshield at Sixth Street and Broadway.
The vehicle was stopped, and three people were found inside.
Officers said the rear seat passenger, Zachary Frederick Tyler Cavalcanti, 19, Warren, ignored their directions and commands and when asked to step from the vehicle, tried to conceal suspected drugs.
He initially withheld his name, but his identity was ascertained with a photo obtained online.
Officers reported finding heroin, cash and cell phones, all of which were seized as evidence.
Cavalcanti was charged with obstructing official business, with drug charges pending the results of lab testing.
Another passenger, Tyrone Crafter Jr., 23, Youngstown, was charged with possession of marijuana.
The driver and owner of the vehicle, Sheryl E. Colgrove, 43, Peach Alley, was not charged.
Cavalcanti appeared Wednesday afternoon in East Liverpool Municipal Court, where Judge Melissa Byers Emmerling scheduled pretrial for June 22, setting cash/surety bond at $25,000. A public defender was appointed after a financial disclosure form indicated he has no employment or income.
After the arrest, Chief John Lane, Service-Safety Director Brian Allen, housing inspector Tom Beagle, health Commissioner Carol Cowan and Planning Director Bill Cowan went to the Ephraim Street residence, where condemned signs were placed and windows and doors boarded up.
The house’s owner is Jennifer McComas, according to city officials, who said Colgrove was the tenant of the home and had reportedly been living there several days.
A neighbor commended city officials and police for acting as quickly as they did to remedy the situation, saying the neighborhood is “thankful.”