Ottawa man handed nine years of prison time for cocaine possession

OTTAWA — An Ottawa man with a lengthy list of past criminal violations — nearly 50 over the last 20 years, by Putnam County Common Pleas Court Judge Keith Schierloh’s count — failed to get the leniency he sought on Thursday.

Schierloh rattled off a portion of the infractions Rogelio Pardo has committed during his adult life, from operating a vehicle while intoxicated to domestic violence to several probation violations and the possession of drugs.

Those offenses didn’t include the ones for which Pardo found himself before the judge on Thursday: the aggravated trafficking in drugs, possession of cocaine and failure to appear for an earlier court hearing. That led to a prison sentence of a minimum of nine years.

“Mr. Pardo, you have been given opportunity after opportunity to get treatment or the help you say you need,” Schierloh said. “The biggest concern for this court is to see the continuing uptick of trouble you’ve demonstrated. We just can’t look the other way … again.”

Pardo was indicted in February on two counts of aggravated trafficking in drugs, felonies of the third degree. He was indicted in April on charges of possession of cocaine, a first-degree felony, along with single counts of failure to appear and aggravated possession of drugs, felonies of the fourth- and fifth-degree, respectfully.

In April, Pardo, 42, entered into an agreement with prosecutors and pleaded guilty to possession of cocaine, failure to appear and aggravated trafficking in drugs. In exchange for those pleas, prosecutors dismissed the remaining counts as well as single counts of domestic violence and aggravated possession of drugs from separate cases.

According to court records, officers with the Multi Area Narcotics Task Force executed search warrants at a residence on North Locust Street in Ottawa on Sept. 10 and Sept. 25 of last year. Methamphetamines were located during each search of the residence, which is within 1,000 feet of SS. Peter and Paul Catholic School.

He was also found to be in possession of drugs when a warrant for his failure to appear was executed at a residence on Franklin Street in Gilboa in March.

Assistant Putnam County Prosecuting Attorney Todd Schroeder asked Schierloh to impose a prison sentence of 10 years.

The judge sentenced Pardo to 30 months on the aggravated trafficking of drugs count, 12 months for failure to appear and a minimum of nine years for the possession of cocaine. All sentences were ordered to be served concurrently.