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Hillsboro man sentenced to prison in 2 different cases

By
Caitlin Forsha, The Highland County Press

A Hillsboro man was sentenced to prison recently after pleading guilty to charges in two different cases.

Zachary E. Harcourt, 29, of Hillsboro was indicted in July 2023 and charged with receiving stolen property, a fourth-degree felony. He was again indicted in October 2023 on one count of failure to appear, also a fourth-degree felony, in connection with the other case.

In the first case, it is alleged that on or about May 15, 2023, Harcourt “did receive, retain or dispose of” a motor vehicle while “knowing or having reasonable cause to believe said property had been obtained through the commission of a theft offense.”

For the second case, it was alleged that on or about Sept. 13, 2023, Harcourt “did recklessly fail to appear” for a hearing in Highland County Common Pleas Court.

Harcourt pleaded guilty to both charges in February 2024. According to court records, he was scheduled to be sentenced in April and allegedly failed to appear. He was later arrested May 30, according to court records.

During the sentencing hearing July 10, Highland County Common Pleas Court Judge Rocky Coss told Harcourt, “I gave you a chance to prove yourself.

“I let you out to go to treatment on March 8, and on April 1, you walked away,” Coss said. “Mr. Harcourt, you have a failure to appear, so this is not the first time you ran, and despite that, I gave you a chance to go to treatment. Again, you ran away, after three weeks or so.

“It’s clear that you don’t have the determination to become clean. People can only give you opportunities to help yourself, and I’ve given you a couple of those opportunities. Both of those have resulted in you not taking advantage of those.”

Coss sentenced Harcourt to 12 months in the receiving stolen property, consecutive to 12 months in the failure to appear case, for a total of two years in prison. Harcourt had 120 days of jail time credit in the receiving stolen property case and 64 days in the failure to appear case.  

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