Readers: Pozonsky sentence too light
When a former Washington County judge was judged, outspoken readers deemed the sentence was not enough.
Former judge Paul Pozonsky was sentenced Monday to 30 days to 23.5 months in jail, two years of probation and drug counseling. He pleaded guilty in March to misdemeanor charges of theft, obstruction of justice and misapplying entrusted government property for stealing cocaine evidence while he served on the bench.
He is eligible to be paroled after 30 days. The sentence was handed down by Senior Judge Daniel Howsare of Butler County. The maximum sentence was six years.
Pozonsky lost his $98,000 annual pension, plus full medical coverage for life, and he will likely lose his license to practice law.
According to his attorney, Robert Del Greco Jr., he also lost his wife and communication with his children.
Reader Phillip Pierrard responded to Del Greco’s comment that Pozonsky was a “broken man” on Facebook.
“Broken man?” he wrote on the Observer-Reporter’s Facebook page. “Do the REAL time for a crime of this magnitude then tell everyone the suffering you’ve endured. What a joke.”
Four people commented on the page that they had been sentenced by the disgraced judge. Some claimed they suspected he was incapable of rendering a fair judgment and that they deserve new trials.
A convicted killer, Robert William Urwin Jr., 58, of Dunlevy, wants a new trial for the 1977 murder of a Charleroi teen. Urwin said his nonjury trial coincided with Pozonsky’s cocaine use.