Drug offenses sent a number of defendants to prison during Warren County Court proceedings on Friday,.
A man involved in a drug ring that spanned three counties in Northwestern Pennsylvania received his sentence from District Judge Maureen Skerda.
Thomas Alvin Lindstrom, 57, 23661 Byler Rd., Spartansburg, Pa., was sentenced to nine months to two years in the Warren County Jail and six years of probation for one count of delivery of a controlled substance.
Lindstrom was ordered to pay $7,226 in fines and fees including $3,550 in restitution to the Attorney General's office stemming from an investigation with his involvement in a cocaine trafficking ring including portions of Erie, Warren and Crawford Counties.
Authorities say Joseph Richard Cieslak Sr., 54, of 10345 Route 27, Pittsfield ran the cocaine trafficking ring from his Pittsfield Township home with Lindstrom and Timothy Soliwoda, 42, also of Spartansburg.
Cieslak was sentence in September to 5 to 10 years in a state correctional facility on charges of possession with intent to deliver cocaine, corrupt organizations and conspiracy to deliver cocaine.
Soliwoda has yet to be sentenced.
John Parroccini, Lindstrom's public defender, said during court on Friday that Lindstrom takes medications for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and requested he be sentenced to a standard period of house arrest so he is not a "burden of the jail staff."
Robert Golenberke of the Pennsylvania Attorney General's Bureau of Narcotics Investigation said he was in agreement with the guidelines set but would defer to the court on the house arrest.
Judge Skerda said she would consider ordering house arrest pending further documentation of Lindstrom's medical condition.
"I wish I didn't do it," Lindstrom said before he was given a sentence.
"Do you believe you have a drug and alcohol problem?," Skerda said.
"No," Lindstrom said.
"So you just sold it to others," she said.
"Yea,".
Golenberke said in the criminal complaint that Lindstrom and Soliwoda agreed to sell cocaine they obtained from Cieslak.
According to the criminal complaint Lindstrom sold 57.4 grams of cocaine on seven different occasions to a confidental informant between April 12, 2011 and June 6, 2011.