MAHONING COUNTY Another jury declines to indict driver in crash

Three passengers were killed and three were injured in the accident.
By BOB JACKSON
VINDICATOR COURTHOUSE REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- There will be no felony charges out of the March traffic accident that left three teenagers dead in Mill Creek Park.
For the second time, a Mahoning County grand jury has declined to hand up a felony indictment against Christiaen A. Lively of Parkwood Avenue, who was driving the car.
"Eighteen people now have heard this evidence, and 18 people said there wasn't enough there for a felony," said Prosecutor Paul Gains.
Prosecutors presented the case to a grand jury in April. After hearing the facts, the panel issued a no-bill, meaning it did not find enough evidence to warrant criminal charges of aggravated vehicular homicide and aggravated vehicular assault against Lively.
City Prosecutor Dionne Almasy then filed charges against Lively in Youngstown Municipal Court, where the matter was bound over to common pleas court to again seek a criminal indictment.
The case was presented Thursday, and the grand jury again issued a no-bill on the same charges that were considered in April.
New grand juries are seated quarterly, so the panel who heard the case Thursday was different from the one that heard it in April.
About the crash
Lively was driving a 1992 Chevrolet Lumina through the park March 27 when it crashed on West Cohasset Drive, ramming head-on into boulders that serve as a guardrail along Axe Factory Run bridge.
Police have said he was driving more than twice as fast as the posted 25 mph speed limit.
Three teens were killed in the accident: Anthony C. Childs, 18, of East Dewey Avenue; Isiah M. Thomas, 16, of St. Louis Avenue; and Amanda M. Ferraro, 16, of New Road, Austintown.
Gains said misdemeanor charges can still be filed against Lively in municipal court. Almasy could not be reached to say whether she will pursue such charges.
Three other teenage passengers were seriously injured but survived.
Another case
In an unrelated case, the grand jury indicted 34-year-old Forrest A. Rupp of Poland on two counts of rape. Rupp is accused of raping a 22-year-old New Waterford woman in March.
The victim told Austintown Township police that Rupp forced her to have sex with him in her car in the parking lot of an Austintown apartment complex. Rupp has denied the allegations.
Rupp served about 90 days of a three-year prison sentence this year for obstructing justice. He admitted helping Martin L. Koliser Jr. in the hours after Koliser fatally shot Youngstown Patrolman Michael T. Hartzell in April 2003. Koliser is awaiting execution on death row.
Based on the rape allegations against him, prosecutors have moved to revoke Rupp's probation for the Koliser-related charges. A hearing on the probation violation is scheduled July 1 in common pleas court.
bjackson@vindy.com