{"id":212083,"date":"2026-11-06T21:52:56","date_gmt":"2026-11-07T02:52:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=212083"},"modified":"2026-11-06T21:52:57","modified_gmt":"2026-11-07T02:52:57","slug":"local-court-handles-heavy-docket","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2026\/11\/06\/local-court-handles-heavy-docket\/","title":{"rendered":"Local court handles heavy docket"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

VW independent staff<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wednesday was a busy day in Van Wert County Common Pleas Court, with more than a dozen criminal defendants appearing before Judge Martin D. Burchfield.\u00a0The hearings included several plea changes and a pair of requests for early release from prison. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Plea changes<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kameron Cooper, 47, of Grover Hill, changed her plea to guilty of misuse of credit cards, a first degree misdemeanor. She was then sentenced to one year of community control, 30 days in jail at a later date, must undergo a mental health and substance abuse assessment and any treatment, and was ordered to pay restitution and court costs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Devan Hall, 21, of Delphos, changed his plea to an amended charge of attempted counterfeiting, a fourth degree felony. Judge Burchfield ordered a pre-sentence investigation and set sentencing set for 9 a.m. December 16.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Megan Lane, 22, of Van Wert, changed her plea to guilty to an amended charge of attempted tampering with evidence, a fourth degree felony. She then requested and was granted intervention in lieu of conviction and her case was stayed pending completion of the treatment program. She was ordered to pay court costs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ronnie Smith, 66, of Convoy, changed his plea to guilty to an amended charge of attempted possession of cocaine, a first degree misdemeanor. He was then sentenced to one year of community control, 30 days in jail at a later date, was ordered to undero mental health and substance abuse assessment and any treatment, and was ordered to pay court costs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cyle Black, 40, of Van Wert, changed his plea to guilty of tampering with evidence, a third degree felony. Judge Burchfield ordered a pre-sentence investigation and set sentencing for 9 a.m. December 9.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Estaban Rivera, 49, of Scott, changed his plea to guilty to an amended charge of attempted having weapons, a fourth degree felony. A pre-sentence investigation was ordered and sentencing was scheduled for 9 a.m. December 16.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Corbin Cornelius, 26, of Van Wert, changed his plea to guilty to an amended charge of domestic violence, a fourth degree felony. A pre-sentence investigation as ordered and sentencing was scheduled for 9 a.m. December 9.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Judicial release hearings<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Courtney Thomas, 32, of Van Wert, appeared on her motion for judicial release from prison. Following the hearing, her motion was granted and she was freed from prison and placed on three years of community control, up to six months at the WORTH Center, and 30 days in jail at later date. She was ordered to consume no alcohol or have drugs without prescriptions, undergo random screens, a mental health and substance abuse assessment and treatment, and was ordered to pay court costs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brooke Ebel, 45, of Van Wert, appeared on her motion for judicial release from prison. Following the hearing, Judge Burchfield granted her motion was granted. She was placed on three years of community control, up to six months at the WORTH Center and 30 days in jail at later date. Ebel was ordered to consume no alcohol or possess drugs without prescriptions, undero random screens, mental health and substance abuse assessment and treatment, and was ordered to pay court costs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sentencing<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anthony Oliver, 31, of Van Wert, was sentenced to 21 days in jail with credit for 21 days already served for aggravated menacing, a first degree misdemeanor. He was ordered to pay court costs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Time waivers<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kaden Ballard, 25, of Van Wert, signed a time waiver in open court and requested additional time to prepare his case. A pre-trial will be set at a later date. Ballard is charged with robbery, a second degree felony, and strangulation, a fifth degree felony.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Frank Alexander, Jr., 33, of Van Wert, signed a time waiver and requested additional time to prepare his case; A pre-trial conference was scheduled for 3 p.m. November 17. He\u2019s charged with two counts of unlawful sexual conduct with a minor, both third degree felonies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Benjamin Seibert, 35, of Van Wert, signed a time waiver in open court and requested additional time to prepare his case; A pre-trial conference was set for 9 a.m. December 16. Seibert is facing charges of aggravated possession of drugs and non-support of dependents, both fifth degree felonies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

VW independent staff Wednesday was a busy day in Van Wert County Common Pleas Court, with more than a dozen criminal defendants appearing before Judge Martin D. Burchfield.\u00a0The hearings included several plea changes and a pair of requests for early release from prison. Plea changes Kameron Cooper, 47, of Grover Hill, changed her plea to […]<\/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-212083","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-11-14 01:40:46","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\/212083","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=212083"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212083\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":212084,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212083\/revisions\/212084"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=212083"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=212083"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=212083"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}