AUSTINTOWN Saadey faces charge in fight
The Austintown man has shown signs of wanting to take his life, his wife told police.
By IAN HILL
and DAVID SKOLNICK
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITERS
AUSTINTOWN -- Russell J. Saadey Jr., sentenced to 55 months in federal prison for his involvement in the Mahoning County case-fixing scandal, was to appear today in Mahoning County Court to answer a misdemeanor charge of domestic violence.
Police reports stated Saadey, 47, got into a fight with his 42-year-old wife, Joy S. Saadey, around 10 p.m. Saturday at their Benton Avenue home in Austintown. The fight quickly escalated, with Saadey grabbing a loaded .38-caliber revolver and being restrained by several family members, police said.
Saadey's 19-year-old son, Russell III, who was at home during the fight, told police that he believed his father was going to use the gun on himself. His wife said she was not sure whom her husband intended to point the gun at, but he has shown signs in the past of wanting to take his own life.
The episode occurred at the Saadeys' home after the family had returned from a gathering at the home of a relative, police said.
Joy Saadey said she and her husband began arguing about a "personal matter going on" in his life, and it escalated into a fight after he went "berserk," police said.
Saadey's son told police that his mother threw bottles at Saadey, then the two began hitting each other. Joy Saadey received a bruise to her left cheek, police said.
What police found
Saadey's sister-in-law, Debra M. Minenok of Boardman, called police at 10 p.m. Saturday about a possible fight at the home. Later, police received a hang-up 911 call from Saadey's residence. Police arrived at 11:25 p.m. and heard loud shouting from inside the home.
Police said that when they arrived, they saw Saadey and his son sitting on the living room couch and his wife being held by a family member.
Joy Saadey told police that during the argument in the living room, her husband went upstairs and got the loaded gun, then walked downstairs into the living room. He was confronted by his son and Frank Minenok Sr., his 74-year-old father-in-law, who lives on Bears Den Court in Youngstown, according to his wife's statement to police.
Saadey's son pinned his father face down on the couch with the loaded gun held underneath Saadey, police said. Saadey's son couldn't get the gun away from his father, so his father-in-law choked Saadey until the gun was taken from him, police said. His wife lay on the floor between the couch and a coffee table during the struggle, police said.
Saadey was to appear today in county court to be arraigned on the misdemeanor charge. He is free after posting $1,500 bond. His wife was treated for the minor injury and released.
Austintown police are talking to federal authorities about the arrest and its impact on his federal prison sentence.
Saadey was sentenced Friday for his role in the county's case-fixing scandal.
Saadey was convicted in October of racketeering conspiracy, extortion, filing three false income tax returns and submitting five false credit card applications.
The charges related to the mid-1990s when Saadey served as an investigator for then-county Prosecutor James A. Philomena, now in a federal prison.