Court denies appeal of ruling to try teen as adult in assault case

LISBON -- An appeals court has denied a bid to scrap a decision to have a 16-year-old tried as an adult in the beating of a schoolmate.
The 7th District Court of Appeals has ruled without elaborating that an order by the juvenile court to have a youngster tried as an adult is not a matter that can be immediately appealed.
An attorney representing Tommy Hart of state Route 45, Leetonia, filed an appeal in April, contending juvenile Judge Thomas Baronzzi improperly allowed the move.
Hart, who is being held in the county jail on $50,000 bond, is scheduled for trial Tuesday before Judge C. Ashley Pike in Columbiana County Common Pleas Court.
Hart is charged with felonious assault, a second-degree felony bearing a maximum eight-year prison sentence.
Authorities say Hart severely beat Nicholas Aratari, 14, of Leetonia on Dec. 10 in a Leetonia High School locker room.
Aratari, who has returned to school, was hospitalized and underwent reconstructive surgery to his face, authorities have said.
Judge Baronzzi ordered Hart to be tried as an adult after determining he would not be amenable to rehabilitation in the juvenile system.