A candidate for the Boardman Local School Board, Donald Riccitelli, 36, of 416 Green Garden Dr., entered a guilty plea to impersonating a police officer stemming from an incident at the Club 76 in Austintown in Sept., 2009.
      “I was getting a guy out of there that shouldn’t have been there,” Riccitelli told The Boardman News, noting he displayed a business card of retired Mahoning County Sheriff Lt. Jack Masi and a female employee “interpreted that I was a police officer.
      “It has nothing to do with what I am doing now,” Riccitelli, who is a current member of the Boardman Local School Fund for Educational Excellence, told The Boardman News.
      Just before midnight on Sept. 14, 2009, Austintown Det. Jeffrey Solic said he was contacted by I-76 Spa operator Ok Hwa ‘Connie’ Mayton, who said a white man entered the business and produced a business card in the name of Masi.
      Mayton told police that man portrayed himself as the name on the business card and “demanded she bring the girls to a massage room...and that a friend ‘was in’ and spent $200 for sex.”
      Mayton said she called the Austintown police and the man grabbed the phone from her.
      Police dispatch records show the man stated “a prostitution ring” was at the spa and then the phone went dead.
      Mayton told police after the man spoke with the police dispatcher, he left the business on foot and that she and an employee, Kum Sugars, chased after him, eventually losing sight of the man.
      The incident was captured on a surveillance camera and showed the man inside the business for just a brief period of time, Det. Solic said.
      Solic interviewed Masi, who said he uses the business cards to identify himself and passes them out to anyone who wants one, and said the man who presented the card at the spa “looked like a bartender he knew who used to work at Johnny’s in Boardman,” adding the man may also work at Zabel’s Restaurant Supply in Youngstown.
      Det. Solic then went to Zabel’s where he spoke with Riccitelli.
      According to Det. Solic, Riccitelli did not deny he was at the spa, stating he didn’t mean to impersonate a police officer, “It just kind of worked out that way.”
      Riccitelli told the detective he got the card from Masi while working at Johnny’s.
      On Sept. 13, Riccitelli told the detective he and a group of friends attended a Cleveland Browns game and said conversation among them turned to the spa, and that some of the men frequented the place, perhaps suggesting they received more than just a massage.
      “Riccitelli explained that he was disgusted with his friends’ behavior and callous demeanor about the cheap, meaningless sexual escapades when they have a wife and children at home,” Det. Solic said.
      Riccitelli told the detective the discussion kept “eating at him.”
      The following day, Riccitelli said he was told he didn’t have to go to work in the evening so he decided to drive to Mountaineer Race track and enter a Texas Hold’Em card tournament.
      He said after the card game, he left the casino and during the drive home, “his mind turned to the conversation about the antics at the spa.”
      He told the detective his emotions got the best of him and he drove to the spa ‘to try and do something about the sex for hire.’
      Once at the spa, he became afraid he would be attacked, so he left. He said at that time he did not see any police cars in the area or he “surely would have flagged them down and provided them with information pertaining to the prostitution.”
      On Feb. 1, 2010, Riccitelli plead guilty to impersonating a police officer and was fined $250 and given a 180 day suspended jail sentence, and ordered to perform 40 hours of community service by Judge David D’Apolito.
      Another candidate for the Boardman Local School Board, Frank Zetts, 55, of 617 Forestridge Dr., was cited on Sept. 4, 2014, with disorderly conduct, following an incident at an apartment building at 1982 Mathews Rd.
      On Nov. 20, 2014, Zetts plead guilty to the charge and was fined $50.
      On Sept. 4 last year, about 10:00 p.m., a woman identified as Carla Carissimi, 57, called police and said that Zetts was banging on her door and he had been harassing her for months.
      Carissimi told Ptl. Phil Merlo and Ptl. Joe O’Grady that she used to be friends with Zetts, but she had ended their relationship ‘eight months ago,’ claiming that Zetts was “controlling and overbearing.”
      The woman told police that Zetts had continued to harass and call her despite numerous requests for him to stop. Carrisimi told police that Zetts was obsessed with her.
      Answering the call, police said they found Zetts hiding in a closet of the apartment building.
      “Zetts initially stated his brother, Arnold, had dropped him off, but then admitted he had parked his vehicle in the carport of a neighboring apartment building,” Officer Merlo said.
      Carissimi told police she is “afraid of Zetts because of his behavior” and wanted nothing to do with him.”
      Police provided Carissimi with advice on how to file an anti-stalking order.
      “She was also advised to have her landlord send Zetts a certified letter warning him for criminal trespassing there,” Officer Merlo said.
      Zetts was issued a minor misdemeanor citation for disorderly conduct and was released at the scene.