Spring Break
Adolescent starts mob
Edna Meyer and Keith McKnight
Issue date: 3/26/03 Section: News
- Page 1 of 1
AKRON, Ohio (KRT) — “The Boss,” police say, began hatching a plan two weeks ago to rake in as much as $100,000 through an organization styled after a Mafia “family.”
But the brains behind the operation is not some hardened criminal from the streets.
He’s a 14-year-old Nordonia Middle School student who was arrested on a felony charge by Summit County sheriff’s detectives Monday night, along with another school friend who was recruited to help carry out the plan.
The Nordonia district’s superintendent, William C. Zwick, said in a statement Tuesday that the two students were suspended for 10 days, and that Nordonia Middle School Principal Jennifer Vinson recommended that both be expelled.
The felony charge of inducing panic involves two crudely made electrical devices found in The Boss’ school backpack, Sheriff’s Capt. Larry Momchilov said. Momchilov said the devices were never used, but they could have disabled the school’s electrical system or caused a fire if they had been plugged into a standard outlet.
The other student was charged with criminal mischief, a misdemeanor. He is accused of attempting to help The Boss carry out a moneymaking scheme that sounds as if it came from an episode of “The Sopranos.”
According to handwritten and computer-generated notes confiscated by Sheriff’s Detective Patricia Kungle, The Boss envisioned making as much as $100,000 by assigning various “jobs” to his friends, then taking a 25 percent cut for himself.
The Boss, according to one of the lists he compiled, envisioned his “family” making money in prostitution, weapons sales, money laundering, recruiting hit men — even candy sales.
Kungle said none of those activities was carried out, but The Boss did go as far as telling friends that the money they brought in would be deposited in his personal bank account. Such a bank account exists in Bedford Heights, Ohio; a grandparent had opened it for the student as a favor, Kungle said.
Approximately $100 in cash was found in the student’s home, Kungle said. The Boss collected the money as membership fees in the family, she said.
But the brains behind the operation is not some hardened criminal from the streets.
He’s a 14-year-old Nordonia Middle School student who was arrested on a felony charge by Summit County sheriff’s detectives Monday night, along with another school friend who was recruited to help carry out the plan.
The Nordonia district’s superintendent, William C. Zwick, said in a statement Tuesday that the two students were suspended for 10 days, and that Nordonia Middle School Principal Jennifer Vinson recommended that both be expelled.
The felony charge of inducing panic involves two crudely made electrical devices found in The Boss’ school backpack, Sheriff’s Capt. Larry Momchilov said. Momchilov said the devices were never used, but they could have disabled the school’s electrical system or caused a fire if they had been plugged into a standard outlet.
The other student was charged with criminal mischief, a misdemeanor. He is accused of attempting to help The Boss carry out a moneymaking scheme that sounds as if it came from an episode of “The Sopranos.”
According to handwritten and computer-generated notes confiscated by Sheriff’s Detective Patricia Kungle, The Boss envisioned making as much as $100,000 by assigning various “jobs” to his friends, then taking a 25 percent cut for himself.
The Boss, according to one of the lists he compiled, envisioned his “family” making money in prostitution, weapons sales, money laundering, recruiting hit men — even candy sales.
Kungle said none of those activities was carried out, but The Boss did go as far as telling friends that the money they brought in would be deposited in his personal bank account. Such a bank account exists in Bedford Heights, Ohio; a grandparent had opened it for the student as a favor, Kungle said.
Approximately $100 in cash was found in the student’s home, Kungle said. The Boss collected the money as membership fees in the family, she said.
