YOUNGSTOWN Magistrate denies restraining order against prosecutor

The McGuffey Road man was told to stop seeking civil protection orders.
By BOB JACKSON
VINDICATOR COURTHOUSE REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Keith McLean told a magistrate that Shawn O'Brian just won't leave him alone. He hoped a restraining order would keep O'Brian away from him.
No such luck.
A magistrate in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court threw out McLean's request for a civil protection order against O'Brian, and threatened sanctions against McLean if he seeks another one any time soon.
O'Brian is an assistant Trumbull County prosecutor who handled a recent case against McLean in Trumbull County. A jury there convicted McLean of improperly handling a firearm in a motor vehicle.
McLean also has been charged in Trumbull County with violating a protection order, for which O'Brian also is the prosecutor.
McLean, 30, of McGuffey Road, said O'Brian threatened to bring more charges against him if he didn't plead guilty to the weapons violation.
He filed for a protection order in late May, and a hearing was Friday before magistrate Robert W. Bannon of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court. McLean represented himself, and O'Brian was represented by attorneys Tom Wright and Rob Kokor.
Prosecutor's argument
Wright said McLean's only motivation was to keep O'Brian from pursuing the criminal charges against him.
He also said any interaction between the two men would have been in Trumbull County, not Mahoning, so the protection order request was improperly filed. Bannon agreed and dismissed the request.
"I think you should know better than to approach this court to get a protection order against a prosecutor who has tried to prosecute you in the course of his duties," Bannon told McLean.
He said McLean has sought five protection orders against other people in the past two years, and had been the target of a protection order himself. He'd recently sought three more orders, including the one against O'Brian.
Bannon said if McLean files another protection order request in Mahoning County, he will start the process of having McLean declared a vexatious litigator. That would mean McLean could not initiate actions in any Ohio court without permission from a judge.
Bannon also dismissed a protection order request McLean had sought against an Ohio Edison employee who had gone to McLean's house to read his electric meter.
McLean voluntarily dismissed his request for a protection order against two McClure Avenue people.
bjackson@vindy.com