Cop breaks up assault during visit to eatery

YOUNGSTOWN -- A uniformed city police detective ordering food at a South Side Subway restaurant helped arrest a man accused of beating a restaurant employee in the bathroom.
Detective Sgt. Rick Spotleson was alerted to the assault by an employee about 8:30 p.m. Tuesday.
When he went to the bathroom, he found a female employee with blood on her face and crying. He also found a 21-year-old South Side man and detained him until officers Robert Dimaiolo and Barbara Copeland arrived at the restaurant at 830 E. Midlothian Blvd.
The female worker said the man was her boyfriend and had come into the restaurant and threw car keys at her. When she went to the bathroom, he followed her, locked them inside, and choked and punched her, police reports show. Spotleson then arrived and a security guard opened the bathroom door.
The Clarencedale Avenue man was charged with first-degree misdemeanor assault.