ard keeps sexual predator in prison for 10 more years Charled M. Bland, left, a 72-year-old miscretant, who claimed to children he was a professor, doctor and scientist among others before molesting them, has been denied parole.
The state Parole Board notified Jenna Wade, coordinator of the Victim/Witness Divison of the Prosecutor’s Office, that Bland will not be eligible for parole until October 2035.
After a parole hearing in October, the parole board denied parole for the child rapist, child pornographer, and all-around child predator On May 8, 2013, Bland was given a 10 -year-to-life prison sentence by former Trumbull County Judge W. Wyatt McKay after Bland pleaded guilty to four counts rape, two counts gross sexual imposition, 25 counts pandering obscenity involving minors and one count illegal use of minor in nudity-oriented material or performance.
Bland’s victims were as young as 6 years old.
While living at Suburban Trailer Park in Trumbull County, Bland claimed to be a professor, a philosopher, a doctor, scientist and astronomer. He went so far as to print counterfeit degrees and diplomas, which he proudly hung in his run-down trailer. He concocted these lies to gain the trust of his neighbors and gain access to their children. Under these fake credentials, Bland lured unsuspecting neighborhood children into his trailer under the guise of “tutoring” them. Once inside, Bland would use his age and size to violate these youngsters, forcing them to engage in various sex acts, including forced touching, forced oral sex, digital penetration and vaginal. A search of Bland’s trailer found a nude image Bland personally took of a 6-year-old female.
Assistant Prosecutor Gabriel Wildman, who wrote the parole board in opposition of Bland’s release, was pleased with the decision to keep him in prison.
“In my opinion… Charles Michael Bland should die in prison,” he said.
Bland will remain in Belmont Correction Institution, with his next parole hearing scheduled for August 2035, according to the prison’s website.
Members of the public may submit comments about the potential parole of Charles M. Bland. Comments can be made through the ODRC website: https://drc.ohio.gov/systems-and-services/1-parole/parole-board-hearing-input
For more information, contact Guy Vogrin, investigator / public information officer, Trumbull County Prosecutor’s Office, 330-675-2485.
E: Ibn Aukmar Shakoor
01AGE: 56
CONVICTION: One Count Aggravated Murder, Two Counts Aggravated Robbery
SENTENCE: 33 years to life in prison
INCARCERATED: Grafton Correctional Institution
PAROLE HEARING: November 2025 (first hearing)
THE CRIME: Shakoor was identified by his cousin Roosevelt Gray as the triggerman in the Dec. 28, 1992, fatal shooting of Joseph Muscardelli outside the former Sir Bentley’s Restaurant on Mahoning Avenue NW in Warren. Muscardelli and his fiancée Beverly Schofield were getting out of their car in the parking lot when the two gunmen approached and robbed the couple. After Muscardelli handed over his wallet, Shakoor shot him three times in the chest. Schofield was not injured. Gray was convicted of charges of involuntary manslaughter, aggravated robbery and receiving stolen property as a teenager in 1993. Gray was sentenced to an 85-year prison sentence and was given parole after a full board hearing in 2019. After his release on parole, Gray absconded, violated parole rules and was returned to prison to serve the remainder of his 85-year sentence. He is scheduled for another parole hearing in May 2028.
“ .. this duo of thugs, led by the older Shakoor, who was previously released from prison, had no interest in allowing a happy, law-abiding couple who were minding their own business to go out to eat that night… Mr. Muscardelli was shot three times, robbed and killed by Shakoor, while the pregnant Ms. Schofield was robbed of her purse at gunpoint by Roosevelt Gray… ’’
-Trumbull County Prosecutor Dennis Watkins
Members of the public may submit comments about the potential parole of Ibn Shakoor. Comments can be made through the ODRC website: https://drc.ohio.gov/systems-and-services/1-parole/parole-board-hearing-input
For more information, contact Guy Vogrin, investigator / public information officer, Trumbull County Prosecutor’s Office, 330-675-2485.
ild rapist violated parole in 2020, returned to prison in 2021 AGE: 59
PAROLE HEARING: November 2025
SENTENCED: On June 16, 1993, William Judson was given an aggregate 15-year to 50-year prison sentence by former Trumbull County Judge Mitchell F. Shaker for convictions of two counts rape.
THE CRIMES: Judson was convicted of repeatedly raping a child between the ages of 5 and 9. Prosecutor Dennis Watkins said there as additional evidence Judson had raped another young girl who was related to him when she was 9 or 10.
Judson has been released on parole in 2009, but was arrested on March 12, 2010, for theft of a watch and gold cross at a Sears store in Cincinnati. He was returned to prison in 2011 as a parole violator. In December 2020, Judson was released on parole for a second time with five years of supervision. He was arrested in Akron on Nov. 9, 2021, and taken back to prison as he was found to be a parole violator. According to information obtained by our office’s former Victim/Witness Division coordinator Mary Jo Hoso, a parole officer informed the office Judson’s violation was “some form of contact with minors” and illegal drug use to do insult to injury. Judson continued to violate prison rules as late as November 2024. Reason: Clinical Diagnosis – Sociopath!
“From our perspective, after his return to lockup, the evidence and history of William Judson’s sexual predatory bad conduct involving children as young as 5 years old and other chronic criminal conduct… it seems it should defy logic and common sense to release him again on parole before he serves his maximum sentence of 50 years. This guy truly deserves to stay there!.”
Prosecuting Attorney Dennis Watkins
Members of the public may submit comments about the potential parole of William Judson. Comments can be made through the ODRC website: https://drc.ohio.gov/systems-and-services/1-parole/parole-board-hearing-input
For more information, contact Guy Vogrin, investigator / public information officer, Trumbull County Prosecutor’s Office, 330-675-2485.
The Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections today informed the coordinator of the Prosecutor’s Office Victim/Witness Division, Jenna Maze, that inmate Charles Perry will remain in prison until at least August 2032.
Perry, 49, is serving a life sentence, consecutive to a three-year gun specification and also a consecutive, indefinite sentence of 10 to 25 years after being convicted of aggravated murder and attempted aggravated murder charges. He underwent his first parole hearing in August outside his cell at Allen Correctional Institution in Lima. However, the parole board chose to extend Perry’s sentence for seven years, with his next parole hearing scheduled for June 2032.
Prosecutor Dennis Watkins was pleased with the action of the Ohio Adult Parole Authority and thanked Assistant Prosecutor Charles Morrow for writing the letter to the parole board opposing P
erry’s parole.
“Quite simply, Perry has anger issues... and continues to violate the rules of various institutions. His ability to conform his behavior and become a law-abiding citizen is suspect,” Morrow wrote to the parole board.
Perry was convicted in the 1995 shooting death of Sheri Reed and the wounding of Pete Morello in drug deal gone bad over a $20 rock of crack cocaine. Evidence showed that just one month after being released on bond for a burglary charge, Perry and Reed were arguing over a crack rock that Perry claimed to have given to Reed, but she refused to pay for it. After a short time, Perry pulled out a revolver and emptied it from point-black range into Morello’s vehicle. One of the projectiles pierced Reed’s heart, while the fiancé Morello was struck several times in the arm, thigh, stomach and chest.
After a nine-day trial, Perry was found guilty of all counts and specifications.
Perry’s criminal record began at the age of 13, with the charges resulting in several probation violations and confinement in local juvenile lockups. At age 17, he committed three different drug offenses, including trafficking, and spent six months at the Department of Youth Services in 1994. After being released, Perry was again arrested in May 1995 for a
burglary of a Warren home. A month later, Sheri Reed was dead, and Peter Morello was severely wounded.
While in prison, Perry committed several infractions, with the most recent being in March 2025. In Nov. 2024, Perry was sent to restrictive housing for punching another inmate. In 2016, he had assaulted another inmate and then raised his fist to the prison guard, according to Perry’s Institutional Report Summary.
Members of the public may submit comments about parole cases. Comments can be made through the ODRC website: https://drc.ohio.gov/systems-and-services/1-parole/parole-board-hearing-input
For more information, contact Guy M. Vogrin, public information officer/investigator for the Trumbull County Prosecutor’s Office at 330-675-2485.
: Brian W. McCurdyViolent rapist of 7-year-old child should remain in prison for life then there will be no more victims, says assistant prosecutor
AGE: 58 (born 6/26/1967)
INCARCERATED: Marion Correctional Institution
PAROLE HEARING: September 2025
SENTENCED: 10 years to life on May 28, 2010, by former Trumbull County Judge Andrew D. Logan after McCurdy pleaded guilty to one count of rape.
THE CRIME: On October 14, 2009, a seven-year-old relative of McCurdy reported to her mother that while the man was babysitting her, he pulled his pants down and tried to “stick the part that boys pee from” in her butt and that he used two fingers and touched her in “the front part.”
McCurdy later admitted to Niles police that he had committed the anal sex.
“As (this) seven-year-old … was not safe from him, no child would be ever safe from (McCurdy). No parole officer could ever hope to have close enough supervision over him to prevent this from happening to another child. The only way to prevent him from doing this to another child is to keep him in prison until the expiration of his sentence.”
- Diane L. Barber, assistant prosecutor and chief counsel for Child Assault Prosecution Unit
Members of the public may submit comments about the potential parole of Brian W. McCurdy. Comments can be made through the ODRC website:
https://drc.ohio.gov/systems-and-services/1-parole/parole-board-hearing-input
For more information, contact Guy M. Vogrin, public information officer/investigator for the Trumbull County Prosecutor’s Office at 330-675-2485.
Parole board votes 5 to 3 to release Gary Betz
With three dis
senting votes, the majority rules that Trumbull County convicted murderer to be paroled for fourth time in March 2026
On Jan. 15, 2026, the full Ohio Parole Board voted 5-3 to release convicted murderer Gary Allen Betz, who gained parole for a fourth time.
According to board chairwoman Lisa Hoying, Betz was found to be eligible for freedom because of his moderate risk score and his good behavioral record while in prison. Betz will be released from prison on March 16, Hoying stated.
Trumbull County Prosecutor Dennis Watkins, who tried Betz in 1977 and appeared in person for a third time to oppose Betz’s parole, argued that Betz has demonstrated during previous paroles that his relatively clean prison record doesn’t translate to his following the law while he is out of prison, and the cruelty shown to a helpless victim and the heinousness of the murder by shooting the victim in the face with a sawed-off shotgun at point-blank range justifies under the law a full life sentence to be served.
In his 11th letter to the Parole Board since 1989, Watkins described Betz as a “depraved heart” murderer and heinous offender, who has a pattern of undergoing “a most successful treatment rate while at the same time, a much higher subsequent failure rate” that Watkins has ever seen in a parole candidate since his first incident of assault in school at age 11.
Betz has been serving a 22-year-to life sentence for the Dec. 15, 1976, shotgun murder of Lake Milton tavern owner Ron Goche after Betz and a co-defendant had robbed Goche of the night’s bar receipts ($138). At the time, Betz had already been paroled twice after serving prison terms for breaking and entering convictions. In 2007, Betz again gained a full-board parole after his attorney stated he suffered from a serious medical condition. However, that parole again was violated when Betz was arrested for drunk driving three times and referred to as “Super Drunk” by local police.
That medical condition was again brought up by defense attorney Emma A. Dann and in a report submitted by a second defense attorney, Zachuary Meranda, that stated that Betz is suffering from a severe skin malady that has confined him to a wheelchair and will prevent him from driving.
The parole board learned that Betz will be staying with a sister and brother-in-law, living near Kent, Ohio in Portage County, where he will be living near his counseling service. Records also showed that Betz has five different drug prescriptions, including Zoloff, to help with a depression, that according to his attorney Dann, is aggravated during the holidays.
Goche’s brother, Galen, also had time speaking before the board to oppose Betz’s parole, stating he felt that through the years that as a victim of crime, he has lost a lot of rights. Galen Goche, who had married two months prior to his brother’s death, said every time he has to travel to Columbus and fight Betz’s parole, he has to relive the tragedy. “I lost my best man,” Galen Goche told the parole board. “And I have been told the reason I have to go through this is because of the system. Well, you are the system – a big part of the system.”
Galen Goche also stated that in the past he had been able to meet face-to-face with one of the parole board members, but this time, he was not allowed to. Also, Goche’s wife was not allowed to speak during the hearing.
In conclusion, Prosecutor Watkins’ basic points were:
“ (1) There is substantial reason to believe inmate Betz will engage in further criminal conduct or that the inmate will not conform to such conditions of release as may be established under the rules of the Administrative Code and (2) there is substantial reason to believe that unique factors of the offense of conviction significantly outweigh the inmate’s rehabilitative efforts, and the release of the inmate into society would create undue risk to public safety and/or would not further the interest of justice nor be consistent with the welfare and security of society.”
Members of the public may submit comments about the parole of Gary A. Betz. Comments can be made through the ODRC website: https://drc.ohio.gov/systems-and-services/1-parole/parole-board-hearing-input
For more information, contact Guy Vogrin, investigator / public information officer, Trumbull County Prosecutor’s Office, 330-675-2485.
Parole board reverses prior decision to release
On Feb. 11, 2026, convicted sex offender Paul Czoka was refused parole by a 5-3-1 vote of the full state parole board, with one board member abstaining. Traveling to Columbus to oppose this bid for freedom were Trumbull County Prosecutor Dennis Watkins, some of his staff members and two of Czoka’s young victims who still fear the man.
In Augu
st, the parole board had granted Czoka’s release and Watkins and three victims appealed that decision which brought about the full board hearing.
After hearing testimony from both sides, including Watkins and one of his victims, the parole board determined that Czoka’s next parole hearing would be in 2031. Watkins said he was very pleased with the board’s decision and the courage shown by the victims who traveled to Columbus to testify.
Czoka, photo at left, was sentenced in 1992 to a term of 14 to 55 years in prison on two counts of rape and two counts of pandering obscenity involving minors. Czoka’s victims were as young as 5 years old at the time, relatives/friends of an ex-girlfriend. The obscenity charges involved Czoka taking pictures and videos of himself and the young victims during these heinous acts.
In her testimony before the board, victim Charlotte talked about the pictures and videos Czoka had taken while having sex with her at the age of 8. These images were produced by Czoka using a tripod in the bedroom where one of his many rapes of kids took place. Charlotte, who was sexually abused by Czoka for about four years, said along with her own relatives that there were probably many more victims out there.
“We were all innocent, happy children before this sexual deviant came into our lives,” she said.
Charlotte also stated that Czoka still affects her life today, saying she feels uncomfortable around someone who has the same tone of voice or mannerisms as the child rapists.
“I remember being in the bedroom … and how I would hold my breath when I heard him creep down those steps. I had hoped he would pass by, but he never would.” The victim also stated she is also triggered by “the smell of tropical mist spray” that were present during those days of abuse.
Charlotte would tell the board she was raped at her mother’s house, at parks, at a relative’s home, and many times in the car. She said that Paul Czoka threatened her and he said: ‘I will kill your sister, mom and dad if you told anybody’ about what he was doing.
Charlotte stated that she still fears Czoka and is concerned about him seeking revenge.
If released, Charlotte stated: “I know it is a fact that there will be more victims…They may not be as lucky as me, because he would kill them rather than go back to prison.”
Watkins, prior to the hearing, had asked for a continuance because of a possible denial of another victim’s constitutional rights. A second victim named Tina, had traveled to Columbus to testify against Czoka, but was told she would not testify because her name was not part of the “convicted charges” against the rapist. Watkins stated that she may have a constitutional right to be heard, and that she was a proper, unnamed victim in the pandering of obscenity charges which Czoka had pled guilty to. Watkins said he needed more time to review the law and make legal arguments, noting that for three months he was told this victim could testify. But the board denied the motion.
However, Tina’s written statement was reviewed by the full parole board before the hearing. In that statement, Tina maintained that at age 5, she vividly remembers Czoka telling her, ‘Take your clothes off’ and ‘Don’t say anything or I will hurt you.’ She even remembers her aunt’s spare bedroom having “floral bed sheets” and the tripod with camera in the bedroom where Czoka took pictures and the smell of “vanilla” which she associates with Czoka’s sexual attacks as they played “Hide and Go Seek”, a smell, which to this very day, Tina dislikes. Tina “fears this man’s release.” It is a matter of personal safety for her.
In his presentation Watkins states Czoka deserves the maximum sentence allowable by law because of these heinous acts. Watkins stated “only the core evil sex offenders want to photograph and film the rapes of young children victims where they are the lead performer.”
“Most child sex offenders from Trumbull County and elsewhere in Ohio do not make movies of what they are doing. That’s why extreme pedophiles like Czoka are so dangerous,” Watkins said. “Those who make movies of their sexual acts with children are still in prison.”
Czoka’s public defender stated that her client had a relatively clean prison record, had not an extensive criminal history and was supported by many prison staff members. Watkins responded that Czoka “misled others and tried to say he made one mistake rather than telling the full story of what he did.” In other words, it was a “learned remorse syndrome.” Good behavior in prison does not necessarily equate with good behavior outside prison confinements. Watkins concluded the only way to guarantee that there will be no more child victims is to let Czoka die in prison.
Watkins also countered that evidence showed that as far back as that Czoka’s sexual assaults dated back to 1971 in places like Girard, Niles and Weathersfield.
The public defender also said that Czoka is suffering from cancer and has a colostomy bag. The plans if he were to be released, Czoka would have resided in a nursing home in the Alliance area of Stark County.
However, the board decided to have Czoka remain in Pickaway Correctional Institution until his next parole hearing scheduled for 2031.
Members of the public may submit comments about the potential parole of Paul Czoka. Comments can be made through the ODRC website: https://drc.ohio.gov/systems-and-services/1-parole/parole-board-hearing-input
For more information, contact Guy M. Vogrin, public information officer/investigator for the Trumbull County Prosecutor’s Office at 330-675-2485.
PAROLE HEARING UPDATE: Sept. 15, 2025
Repeat violent offender, ‘notorious’ killer to remain behind bars for at least five more years‘Wade’s more than just sentence must be fully served, and a safe public always is insured with incapacitation by incarceration,’ Watkins says.
The Trumbull County Prosecutor’s Office learned late last week that convicted murderer Pompie Junior Wade, 72, has been denied parole and will remain in prison for at least five more years.
According to the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction website, Wade will have his next parole hearing in June 2030.
Wade, who is incarcerated at Marion Correctional Institution, is serving a 20-year-to life prison sentence after the U.S. Supreme Court had ruled Ohio’s death penalty law unconstitutional. Wade was previously sentenced on April 30, 1976, to death by former Judge Sydney Rigelhaupt for the Dec. 29, 1975 murder of Dominic Chiarella, 51, and the attempted murder of Fred G. Piersol, 23, during an armed robbery at the Austin Village Beverage Center in Warren.
Wade at the time of the fatal shooting was on parole for a manslaughter conviction in the 1972 death of William A. Jackson.
Trumbull County Prosecutor Dennis Watkins said he had a conversation with Dr. David Chiarella, the victim’s son, who was very happy that Wade was denied parole. Watkins lamented that Dr. Chiarella and his family had to relive the horror of Dominic Chiarella’s death because of this parole hearing and others over a 50-year span.
“Nevertheless, his family and society will be safe, and Pompie Wade’s just punishment will continue. It is our hope that he serves his full life sentence in prison,” Watkins said. “Mercy was already given to Pompie Wade when his death penalty was reversed. We thank the Ohio parole board for making the right decision.”
In 1976, Watkins was then an assistant to elected Prosecutor J. Walter Dragelevich and was part of the trial team that convicted Pompie Wade. Since that time, Watkins has been
personally in contact with the Chiarella family and has written the Ohio parole board in 1989, 1995, 2005, 2015 and 2025, five times strongly opposing the inmate’s release. Dr. Chiarella also repeatedly wrote the board and met with members of the board every ten years opposing freedom for Wade. Also, the parole board received letters in opposition to Wade’s parole from other local officials, including Councilman Michael O’Brien and Warren Mayor William “Doug” Franklin. Both O’Brien and Franklin wrote that Wade’s actions deprived the community of one great human being, Dominic Chiarella.
On December 29, 1975, Wade -- while on parole for killing a Warren man -- decided to rob a beverage center on the west side of Warren. Dominic Chiarella and Fred Piersol were working that day when Wade entered the store with a .32 revolver in hand. Even though he had already stolen cash, Wade ordered the victims to go to the back of the store into the cooler which was used for beverages. The two victims stood in the cold, in the cooler, and then Wade walked in, stared at them, and then in cold blood, shot both men in the chest several times with pattern shots near the heart.
Dominic Chiarella died almost instantaneously, leaving behind a wife and children. By the grace of God, Fred Piersol survived. As he left the store, Wade did some shopping, grabbing among other items a bag of potato chips. He munched on the chips as the robbers fled in the getaway car. The empty bag and crumbs managed to make its way into evidence for Wade’s trial.
A jury found Wade guilty on all counts, and he was sentenced to death. However, Wade avoided execution when Ohio’s death penalty was ruled unconstitutional in 1978,
A newspaper editorial by the Youngstown Vindicator on Aug. 3, 2025, titled “Twice-convicted killer should not get third chance”, commenting on an upcoming Ohio Parole Board hearing considering Wade’s possible release on parole, stated: “How many breaks should a cold-blooded murder get?”
“Wade’s more than just sentence must be fully served, and a safe public always is insured with incapacitation by incarceration,” Watkins stated.
Members of the public may submit comments about Pompie Wade’s case. Comments can be made through the ODRC website: https://drc.ohio.gov/systems-and-services/1-parole/parole-board-hearing-input
For more information, contact Guy M. Vogrin, public information officer/investigator for the Trumbull County Prosecutor’s Office at 330-675-2485.