Ex-union organizer denies pulling knife

The brothers charged with assault are proclaiming they acted in self-defense.
By PATRICIA MEADE
VINDICATOR CRIME REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Despite being "beaten mercilessly" last October while videotaping a nonunion paving project on the North Side, Blaine Daugherty III says he didn't pull the 31/4-inch knife clipped onto his waistband.
Daugherty, 31, of Willoughby Hills, Ohio, told a jury in municipal court Thursday that he was hit by Michael Romano, who wanted the camera, and punched so hard by Thomas Romano that his neck and arms still hurt.
The Romano brothers work for their family's company, Cleveland Asphalt in Bessemer, Pa., which paved a section of West Rayen Avenue last October. Both are charged with assault, and Michael Romano also is charged with damaging Daugherty's camera.
On Oct. 7, 2003, Daugherty was a union organizer for Labor International Union of North America. He said he quit the job about three weeks ago and now does landscaping.
The Romanos' trial began Wednesday afternoon in Judge Elizabeth A. Kobly's court and was expected to wrap up today. Defense attorneys J. Gerald Ingram and James S. Gentile said both Romanos would take the witness stand on their own behalf and assert self-defense.
To testify
Michael Romano, 38, of Wampum, is expected to testify that Daugherty lunged at him with a knife and that his brother Thomas, 34, of New Castle, came to his defense.
Ingram and Gentile also intended to call Raymond Collier, who tried to break up the fight, and another eyewitness, Mark Hamicar, who works for Cleveland Asphalt.
When questioned by Ingram and Gentile on Thursday, Daugherty steadfastly denied using the weapon he referred to as a pocketknife.
"If [Collier] says he saw you wielding a knife, he's incorrect?" Gentile asked.
"Yes," Daugherty answered.
Bassil Ally, an assistant city prosecutor, called eyewitnesses who testified that they did not see Daugherty wielding a knife. They said they did see Daugherty and Michael Romano arguing and pushing each other.
Patrolman Dave Copanic, first on the scene, testified that he saw Michael Romano punch Daugherty in the back of the head and Thomas Romano punch Daugherty once in the face. The officer also saw Michael Romano remove the cassette from Daugherty's camera and pull out the videotape.
Copanic said he confiscated Daugherty's knife after someone in the crowd yelled, "He's got a knife." Copanic acknowledged under cross-examination by Ingram that there's no way he would have known if the knife had been out before he arrived.
Incomplete report
Patrolman Joe Wess testified that he began to write out a felonious assault report for Michael Romano, naming Daugherty as the assailant, when Copanic showed up to arrest Romano. Wess said the report was never completed and a line that noted no independent witness saw the knife was not written by him but added later.
Ingram established through questioning of Daugherty that Daugherty twice lied to police years ago when he drove without a valid license. Daugherty admitted that he used his brother's identity twice -- in 1994 and again in 1997 -- to avoid charges.
meade@vindy.com