{"id":209356,"date":"2026-08-26T20:43:54","date_gmt":"2026-08-27T01:43:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=209356"},"modified":"2026-08-26T20:44:03","modified_gmt":"2026-08-27T01:44:03","slug":"defendants-appear-in-common-pleas-court-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2026\/08\/26\/defendants-appear-in-common-pleas-court-3\/","title":{"rendered":"Defendants appear in Common Pleas Court"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><em>VW independent staff<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Seven defendants appeared in Van Wert County Common Pleas Court on a variety of matters on Wednesday. Judge Martin D. Burchfield presided over each of the hearings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Arraignments<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Ian Taylor, 32, of Van Wert, entered a not guilty plea to possession of a fentanyl related compound, a fifth degree felony. He was released on a surety bond and a pre-trial conference was set for8:15 a.m. September 23.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignright size-full\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"350\" height=\"234\" src=\"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/Gavel-photo-350.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-146837\"\/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>Theresa Bakle, 40, of Van Wert, pleaded not guilty to aggravated possession of drugs, a fifth degree felony, and illegal use or possession of drug paraphernalia, a fourth degree misdemeanor. Judge Burchfield set at bond at $5,000 cash or surety and scheduled a pre-trial conference for 8 a.m. September 23. While in court, Bakle admitted to violating her bond by failing to appear. A hearing will be held on September 23.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Plea changes<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Lorenzo Frye, 37, of Van Wert, changed his plea to guilty to violating a protection order, a third degree felony. A pre-sentence investigation was ordered and sentencing was scheduled for 9 a.m. October 14.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Christopher Runyon, 50, of Van Wert, changed his plea to guilty to aggravated possession of drugs, a fiffth degree felony. Judge Burchfield ordered a pre-sentence investigation and set sentencing for 9 a.m. October 7.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Bond\/intervention in lieu violation<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Jered Couch, 38, of Van Wert, admitted to violating his bond and intervention in lieu by failing to engage in treatment and failure to appear to probation. A pre-sentence investigation was ordered and sentencing was scheduled for 9 a.m. October 7.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Sentencing<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Jeffrey Kallas, 25, of Van Wert, was sentenced to 180 days in jail and was given credit for 51 days already served for possession of cocaine. He was ordered to pay court costs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Competency hearing<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Joshua Burnett, 48, of Van Wert, was found competent to stand trial after an evaluation at Court Diagnostic in Toledo. He then changed his plea to guilty to an amended count of attempted trafficking in drugs, a third degree felony. A pre-sentence investigation was waived and sentencing was scheduled for 9 a.m. October 14.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>VW independent staff Seven defendants appeared in Van Wert County Common Pleas Court on a variety of matters on Wednesday. Judge Martin D. Burchfield presided over each of the hearings. Arraignments Ian Taylor, 32, of Van Wert, entered a not guilty plea to possession of a fentanyl related compound, a fifth degree felony. He was [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-209356","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-09-04 03:07:44","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209356","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=209356"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209356\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":209376,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209356\/revisions\/209376"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=209356"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=209356"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=209356"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}