BY JOHN A. DARNELL JR.
      associate editor
      A 26-year-old man arrested by members of the Mahoning Valley Human Trafficking Task Force on Sat., Apr. 6 in East Palestine, Oh., (along with a Boardman Local School music teacher), has been bound over to a Columbiana County Grand Jury on fifth degree felony charges of possession of criminal tools and possession of drugs.
      Logan Larlham, a convicted sex offender, could face additional charges after a room he rented at the Wagon Wheel Motel, 7015 Market St., was raided by law enforcement officers, including Boardman police and an FBI agent, on Apr. 12.
      Larlham, 26, has been bound over to the Columbiana County grand jury for allegedly responding to an undercover ad on a known prostitution website and requesting to have a female brought to his room at the Wagon Wheel Motel so she could provide sex for hire services and refer her clients to him for drug sales. He arranged for a driver, (identified as Robert Pavalko, 44, a music teacher employed by Boardman Local Schools) to take him to pick up the female.
      Larlham and Pavalko were arrested when they showed-up in East Palestine to pick-up the presumed prostitute.
      Pavalko, of 137 Shadow Ridge Dr., Poland, Oh., has entered a plea of not guilty to charges of permitting drug abuse and felony possession of drugs and is free on his own recognizance after posting a $5000 bond.
      His case is set for a preliminary hearing on May 2 before Judge Katelyn Dickey.
      While awaiting trial, Pavalko has been placed on administrative leave by Boardman Local Schools. Pavalko is also in court in Mahoning County, seeking a divorce from a Girard man, David Matthew Nickell, court records show.
      Larlham, a convicted sex offender, had rented a room at the Wagon Wheel. When law enforcement went to the motel on the warrant, the business was in the process of removing Larlham’s property “for disposal” because he had not paid his bill.
      Boardman Court Judge Joseph Houser approved a search warrant for a safe that was Larlham’s room.
      Inside the safe, law enforcement officers found a baggie of white crystals, a plastic container of white crystals, seven capped syringes and a digital scale.
      Police said the crystals field-tested positive for methamphetamine.
      Also recovered in Larlham’s room were a cell phone and a USB flash drive.
      After seizing the items from the safe, law enforcement said “the remainder of Larlham’s property was thrown into the dumpster at the Wagon Wheel, per their protocol.”
      Since his arrest on Apr. 6, Larlham has been lodged in the Columbaina County Jail, unable to post a $100,000 bond.