NEWTON FALLS Bar-fight suspect to get 30 days in plea deal

A proposed plea agreement was worked out during a pretrial hearing.
By PEGGY SINKOVICH
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
NEWTON FALLS -- A special prosecutor is going to recommend that a 23-year-old Garrettsville man spend 30 days in the county jail.
Atty. Greg Hicks, Warren City law director, who is serving as special prosecutor on John Lusher's case, said Lusher is expected to plead to a reduced charge Aug. 9.
Lusher faces charges from an April 2 bar fight, which police say he and his girlfriend were involved in. Police said Lusher broke a window at the bar, then the couple ran.
Hicks and Atty. George Kalafut, Lusher's attorney, worked out a proposed plea agreement during a hearing Tuesday in municipal court.
The deal
In exchange for Lusher's guilty plea, Hicks said, he will reduce a felony vandalism charge to a misdemeanor count of criminal damaging and recommend a 90-day jail sentence with 60 days of that term suspended.
"We have also agreed to dismiss a charge of resisting arrest on the condition that Mr. Lusher agree that there was probable cause for him to be arrested on that charge," Hicks said. "I will also ask that Mr. Lusher make full restitution for the window he broke, spend a year on probation, and successfully complete drug and alcohol counseling."
Policeman indicted
As a result of the arrest of Lusher and Connie Casseday, Sgt. James Zimomra, a police officer, was indicted last month on two charges of felonious assault and one charge of misdemeanor assault.
Zimomra is accused of assaulting Casseday, 22, and Lusher, 23.
On a videotape recorded by a camera in another officer's cruiser, Zimomra can be seen hitting Casseday. She received seven stitches.
Officials say Zimomra is accused of hitting Lusher with his cruiser.
Zimomra was to appear in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court today for a pretrial hearing.
On the videotape, Lusher appears to lie unconscious next to Zimomra's cruiser.
The car hit him while officers were chasing the couple through the back alleys of Newton Falls after the bar fight, Kalafut has said.
Kalafut said Lusher suffered a massive bruise to his right hip and a bruised liver.