AUSTINTOWN Judge dismisses Saadey charge

The Austintown man is serving a 55-month federal prison term.
By IAN HILL and DAVID SKOLNICK
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
AUSTINTOWN -- A domestic violence charge against Russell J. Saadey Jr. was dismissed today after his wife told a judge she would not testify against her husband.
Kenneth Cardinal, assistant county prosecutor in Austintown, requested that Judge David D'Apolito of Mahoning County Court drop the misdemeanor charge because domestic violence would be impossible to prove without the testimony of Joy Saadey. The judge honored Cardinal's request.
"It's impossible to prove these cases without the victim's testimony," Cardinal said.
Other family members who were at Saadey's house when the pair got into a fight also refused to testify against Saadey, Cardinal said. Cardinal added if police had arrived at Saadey's home 15 minutes earlier the case would not have hinged on Saadey's family's cooperation.
As Saadey was being led out of court by sheriff's deputies, he waved to his family members in the audience and called to his wife, "Joy, take care."
Saadey is serving a 55-month sentence in the Federal Correctional Institution in Milan, Mich., for fixing criminal cases in Mahoning County.
Brought to Youngstown
U.S. marshals brought Saadey from Michigan to U.S. District Court in Youngstown on Tuesday, where he pleaded innocent to a charge of being a felon in possession of a firearm and ammunition. The charge stems from his domestic violence arrest.
Saadey then spent Tuesday and Wednesday night in county jail at the federal government's expense, Cardinal said. He is expected to be taken back to Michigan today.
Saadey, 47, was arrested April 21 by Austintown police at his home. Police said he got into a fight with his wife, 42, in the living room of their Benton Avenue home. During the fight, Saadey went into his bedroom, grabbed a loaded .38-caliber revolver and returned downstairs, police said.
He was restrained by several family members, who were able to get the gun from him, police said. His son, 19, told police that he believed his father was going to use the gun on himself.
Felons are prohibited from possessing guns. The episode occurred two days after Saadey was sentenced in federal court for fixing criminal cases in Mahoning County.
Saadey served as an investigator in the mid-1990s for then-county Prosecutor James A. Philomena, who is serving time in a federal prison for his involvement in the case-fixing scheme.
Saadey was free after his April 19 sentencing while the U.S. Bureau of Prisons determined where he would serve.
After the encounter at the Saadey home, U.S. District Court Judge Kathleen M. O'Malley revoked Saadey's bond and ordered him to immediately start serving his federal sentence.
hill@vindy.com