A Boardman contractor was taken into custody Saturday on five theft counts, passing bad checks and having control of a vehicle while under the influence, according to WFMJ.
The station identified him as John Bartos III, 43. His arrest followed a fugitive warrant signed in late July by a Mahoning County Court judge in Canfield on a felony theft charge, WFMJ reported. Police allege he accepted $6,000 to work on a Beaver Township home and did not come back to finish, the station said.
According to WFMJ, an August bench warrant from Columbiana County Common Pleas Court Judge Scott Washam was issued after Bartos missed a hearing on an alleged probation violation. An assistant county prosecutor asked Washam to revoke Bartos' community control, alleging a probation terms violation, the station reported. The same day the Lisbon arrest warrant was filed, Bartos' defense attorney sought to withdraw from the case, citing irreconcilable differences, per WFMJ.
WFMJ reported that in 2024 Washam placed Bartos on three years of community control after pleas in three separate theft cases. That same year, the station said, Bartos pleaded guilty to 11 theft counts in the fifth and fourth degrees and six counts of theft from protected-class individuals. WFMJ also reported a prior Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, arrest over an alleged $2,500 home-repair deposit in Marshall Township that was not completed; he pleaded guilty to a lesser disorderly conduct charge and paid about $500 in fines, the station said.
No court date was set after Saturday's arrest, per WFMJ.