Jarius Ward received a second chance at probation at a Friday morning hearing.
Jessica Orozco | The Lima News
LIMA — A Lima man on community control received a second chance on Friday after submitting forged hospital documentation to excuse missing a week of meeting with his parole officer.
Jarius Ward, 34, will receive an additional year on top of his three year probation sentence ordered in March 2021 for two cases in which he was convicted of having a weapon under disability, trespassing in a habitation and burglary.
According to the indictments, Ward entered the home of a woman on Sept. 21, 2021 with the purpose of committing a crime. On Jan. 18, 2022, he had a firearm while still charged with the 2021 offense.
Ward said that he has struggled with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder after his best friend of ten years shot him in the chest this spring. He said he has seen a counselor a few times, but was overwhelmed in October and went to Columbus instead of reporting to his probation officer for a week.
Ward submitted documents he said were from the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center that stated he had been admitted to the hospital. These were discovered to have been forged, and he admitted this to the probation department.
At the hearing, Ward said a friend who is a nurse at Mercy Health-St. Rita’s forged the documents for him, and he isn’t sure why he asked her or submitted them instead of telling the truth.
Ward said he believes more counseling will help him and told Allen County Common Pleas Court Judge Jeffrey Reed that he was asking for only one more chance and he would not fight a prison sentence if he were to violation his probation again.
Ward said since he’s been on community control, he has held several jobs and recently started his own clothing company. He said he’d like to continue this business venture.
Reed ordered Ward to be admitted to the WORTH Treatment Center before completing reentry court as a condition of his extended community control. He is ordered to pay court costs.
