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Former defense attorney again refuses to leave jail cell

WARREN — Former Warren defense attorney Maridee Costanzo, 64, on Friday refused to leave her jail cell for a video arraignment for the second day in a row.

Costanzo was arrested Wednesday at her home on Genesee Avenue after failing to appear in court last month to answer a misdemeanor charge of permitting drug abuse.

She was scheduled to be arraigned Thursday in Warren Municipal Court in front of Judge Thomas P. Gysegem, but refused to leave her cell. When she refused again on Friday, Gysegem accepted her written not guilty plea, court records show.

Her bond is set at $1,000 cash or surety, according to Trumbull County jail records. Her arraignment was rescheduled again for 9:45 a.m. Monday.

The charge against Costanzo stems from a July 19 paramedic call to her home to treat a drug overdose victim. Police charged her after they found record of four prior overdoses at her address in the past three months.

Costanzo lost her law license after she was convicted in a plot to kill her husband and served eight years in federal prison. In 2017, Costanzo was sent to state prison for her role in a theft ring in Geauga County.

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