Less than day after release, felon is behind bars again

The defendant's new bond is $250,000.
By PATRICIA MEADE
VINDICATOR CRIME REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Charles M. Pullen, a convicted drug and gun felon, was out on $70,000 surety bond about 21 hours when arrested on a gun charge that qualifies him for federal prosecution.
At 1 a.m. Tuesday, Pullen, 21, of Selma Avenue was released from the Mahoning County jail, where he'd been since June 28. The $70,000 bond was posted on four counts of aggravated menacing, two counts of failure to comply with a police order, and one count each of resisting arrest, driving under suspension and assault.
At 10 a.m. Tuesday, Pullen showed up in municipal court for a preliminary hearing and pretrial on the charges. Judge Elizabeth A. Kobly bound the assault charge over to a Mahoning County grand jury; the other misdemeanor charges were set for trial in August.
What happened
At 10:20 p.m. Tuesday, Pullen, dressed in red gang colors, was arrested inside a Westlake Terrace apartment, where police said he ran when someone started yelling "Five-0," slang for law enforcement. The term sprang from the old TV cop show "Hawaii Five-0."
City police and agents with the federal bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were at Westlake as part of the Gun Reduction Interdiction Project. The subsidized apartments are a GRIP target area as a site of drug activity and gun violence.
Police, with permission of the resident, searched the apartment Pullen entered and confiscated a loaded .25-caliber handgun found in the bedroom where he had been. Pullen told police the gun was his but said he got it for a woman named Lawanda who had been shot recently at Westlake and wanted protection.
Vindicator files show that Lawanda West, 29, was shot in the stomach and breast outside her apartment in the 900 block of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard on June 29.
Pullen was charged with illegal possession of a weapon, based on a prior felony conviction that involved violence or drugs. In March 2001, Pullen was sentenced to 18 months in prison for carrying a concealed weapon. In August 2001, he received a 12-month prison sentence for cocaine possession.
Pullen was in a state prison from March 8, 2001, to Aug. 26, 2002.
Federal prosecution
As a felon in possession of a weapon, he qualifies for federal prosecution, which is one aim of GRIP. Police assigned to the city's Street Crimes Unit, ATF agents, U.S. marshals, U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agents and others have being working GRIP details.
Pullen was arraigned Wednesday in municipal court on the new felony gun charge. Judge Robert A. Douglas Jr. set bond at $250,000 cash or surety.
A preliminary hearing was set for July 18.
As of Friday, Pullen remained in jail, unable to post the new bond.
meade@vindy.com