NILES Prosecutor will not file charges in brawl

An investigation yielded no clear insights into the bar fight.
By PEGGY SINKOVICH
and DENISE DICK
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
NILES -- No charges will be filed from a November 2001 fight outside a bar that involved two off-duty Trumbull County Sheriff's detectives.
City Prosecutor Bruce Bennett sent the information regarding the fight to the Ashtabula County Prosecutor's office late last year for an opinion. Susan R. Thomas, an assistant prosecutor in Ashtabula County, wrote that she had reviewed the file.
"It is my decision that the statements and observations of all parties are too inconsistent to pursue any charges," Thomas wrote in a letter to Bennett filed Friday in Niles Municipal Court. "Furthermore, the injuries sustained [or not sustained] are not supported by the testimony."
Thomas also apologized for the delay in her response, citing staff vacancies in her office.
Bennett said Monday that Thomas's finding concurred with his own and that no charges will be filed. "We're closing our file on it," he said.
Reaction: Detectives Peter Pizzulo and Anthony Leshnack were involved in a fight Nov. 10 at Gasoline Alley, 500 Vienna Ave., with Steven and Brian Tabor of Nash Street and Paul Benedict, also of Niles. No street address was given for Benedict.
Atty. Robert Shaker, legal counsel for Benedict, said he is still planning to pursue a civil case against the two deputies.
Benedict could not be reached. Tabor said he is disappointed.
Pizzulo, however, said he wasn't surprised that no charges will be filed. He said he and Leshnack hadn't initially sought charges against the other men.
"It was an unfortunate incident that they started, and they tried to make it something that it wasn't," Pizzulo said.
Leshnack couldn't be reached.
Reports: Police reports give different accounts of what happened.
Tabor and Benedict told city police that they were assaulted by the detectives. Pizzulo and Leshnack have said that Tabor and Benedict started the fight in the Gasoline Alley parking lot.
Leshnack told investigating officers that as he was leaving Gasoline Alley he was jumped by three or four people, knocked to the ground, kicked and punched.
In a separate report, police said Tabor told officers he was punched in the face by a man as he was walking to Gasoline Alley after he and a friend were involved in a fight in the rear lot. Police talked to the man, later identified as Pizzulo, who said Tabor and Tabor's friend started the fight.
sinkovich@vindy.com dick@vindy.com