Robert M. Greenisen of Salem, right, sits with his defense attorney, Chris Amato, during his sentencing Friday for trying to bribe a judge. The funeral director and licensed embalmer for Arbaugh Pearce Greenisen and Sons Funeral Home was placed on probation under community control for three years, but must serve 90 days in jail. (Salem News photo by Mary Ann Greier)

Salem funeral home director Robert M. Greenisen said Friday he was sorry for what he did, recounting the counseling he’s undergone to curb his problems since being charged with trying to bribe a judge.

Columbiana County Common Pleas Court Judge Megan Bickerton said while she appreciated the letters written on his behalf and the degree of effort he’s put in, there are still consequences.

That’s when she sentenced Greenisen to 90 days in the county jail and three years of community control, starting immediately. The 56-year-old King Road resident left the courtroom in handcuffs, escorted by a security bailiff.

“I respect her decision,” his defense attorney, Chris Amato, said when contacted later.

Amato also said he has no plan to appeal the sentence. As for what that means for the Arbaugh Pearce Greenisen and Sons Funeral Home, he said he didn’t know for sure, but assumed that Greenisen had a plan in place for the continued operation.

Greenisen entered a guilty plea to the third-degree felony bribery charge in October for attempting to bribe county Municipal Court Judge Tim McNicol, who was presiding over a drunk driving case against him.

The bribery count came about after an envelope containing $500 and a letter addressed to McNicol was found in the municipal court’s overnight drop box on April 14, just days before Greenisen was scheduled to appear on the OVI second offense case. Investigators had video images of a van linked to the funeral home dropping off the envelope, a copy of the letter saved to a computer at the business and a confession from Greenisen.

During the sentencing hearing, Special Prosecutor Jeffrey Jakmides said Greenisen fully cooperated with the investigation and provided some of the evidence used against him. The impact was that a visiting judge had to be assigned to handle the OVI case, which resulted in Greenisen serving 23 days in the county jail in September, paying $2,500 in fines and court costs and losing his license for seven years. He has since passed all of his drug and alcohol tests.

Jakmides said he and Amato spoke with Judge McNicol and said the judge indicated he didn’t oppose community control, which Jakmides was recommending.

Amato spoke on his client’s behalf and described some of his mental health diagnoses, including being bipolar, and noted that he’s on medications now, going to counseling and doing well.

“I don’t believe if you put him on community control that he’ll be back,” Amato said.

Greenisen told Bickerton that prior to 2014, he didn’t have any problems at all, but then his wife was diagnosed with dementia, one of his brother’s suffered from a flesh-eating disease before his death, then his father, who owned the funeral home business, died. His older brother has been ill, his mother is 94 years old and his mother-in-law recently passed, which has seriously affected his son. He also lost his employees during COVID-19 because they were fearful of the pandemic.

Now, though, he said “I’ve been doing better and better.”

He’s got new employees and help.

Bickerton acknowledged the letters written by prominent citizens of the area for him, but she also noted that instead of him owning up to his actions after the OVI second offense, he was caught driving under suspension and tried to bribe a judge, giving the judiciary a bad name, “that we can be bought.”

She said there are obviously some underlying issues, but life is hard. Everybody deals with that, they don’t try to get themselves out of the consequences of what they’ve done, she said.

mgreier@mojonews.com