BRENTWOOD — Former Salem Zoning Board of Adjustment Chairman and state Rep. Ronald “Tony” Giordano will spend a year in prison after pleading guilty to drug charges this morning.
Rockingham Superior Court Judge N. William Delker sentenced the former town official shortly before 10 a.m. and Giordano was led off to jail.
Giordano, 54, has been free on $10,000 cash bail following his arrest Dec. 30, 2011. He was the focus of a monthlong investigation by Salem police, who said they found more than 100 Oxycodone pills while searching his home on Lois Lane.
Giordano was charged with three counts of selling Oxycodone and a charge of conspiracy to the sale of a controlled drug. Each of the felony charges is punishable by three and a half to seven years in state prison.
He decided to plead guilty shortly before his trial was to begin Jan. 7.
His one-year sentence is for the three counts of selling a controlled drug. He received a suspended sentence of five to 10 years in state prison on the conspiracy charge.
Giordano resigned from the zoning board just three days after his arrest, which stunned Salem officials, even though he had a criminal record in Massachusetts.
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