Hillsboro man sentenced in 2 Highland County cases

A Hillsboro man was sentenced this month to a year in prison, plus three years of community control, after pleading guilty to charges in two different cases.

Steven R. Gibson, 51, was indicted by a Highland County grand jury in January on one count of aggravated possession of methamphetamine, a fifth-degree felony.

According to a bill of particulars, Gibson was arrested in August 2022 at the scene of a traffic crash, due to having an “active warrant for his arrest.” The responding police officer allegedly found “a glass container containing a crystal substance and a brown bag containing a glass pipe” inside Gibson’s pants, with the substance later determined via BCI testing to be meth.

Gibson was again indicted in April on one count of failure to appear, a fourth-degree felony.

It was alleged that on or about March 8, Gibson “did recklessly fail to appear as required” in court for the aforementioned drug case. According to court records, Gibson pleaded guilty to the possession charge in February and was scheduled to be sentenced March 8.

Gibson later pleaded guilty to the failure to appear charge in August.

On Sept. 13, Highland County Common Pleas Court Judge Rocky Coss sentenced Gibson to 12 months in prison for failure to appear, as well as three years of community control in the drug case, which is to be tolled until Gibson’s prison term is completed. Gibson is to report the Probation Department “by the end of the next business day following [his] release from prison,” according to the judgment entry.

Gibson was also ordered to pay court costs and to successfully complete a recommended treatment program.

He was admitted into the Correctional Reception Center in Orient on Sept. 21, according to the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction.