Sisters fined in televised rampage

Serious charges dropped for Amy and Deanna McCollum.
STRUTHERS -- Trumbull County sisters whose videotaped police station rampage aired on TV pleaded no contest Wednesday to minor charges after releasing the city from liability over possible improprieties in their arrests.
The pleas were the final chapter in a saga that began with a routine traffic stop but went on to include public urination, exposed breasts and damage to a video camera in a police interrogation room.
Fines, probation
The more serious criminal damage charges against Amy M. McCollum, 22, of Bristolville, and Deanna M. McCollum, 19, of Warren, in the Oct. 15 incident were dismissed.
Instead, Amy pleaded no contest to disorderly conduct and Municipal Judge James Lanzo fined her $100 and assessed $95 court costs. Deanna pleaded guilty to reckless operation of a vehicle and was fined $100, assessed $79 in costs and placed on one-year probation, according to municipal court records.
A no contest plea allows the judge to sentence the defendant without an admission of guilt.
Atty. Sarah Kovoor, who represented Amy in the criminal case and both women in a civil suit against the city, said the sisters were happy to have the matter ended without substantial fines, jail time or records.
"It was a pragmatic solution for two young women who had no prior offenses," she said afternoon after the pleas were entered.
A telephone message left for the city prosecutor was not returned.
Kovoor noted that a key element in the case was that the women were not cited in the traffic stop and followed police to the station voluntarily.
It started with a traffic stop
The original report says police stopped the car Deanna was driving on Loveland Avenue, Youngstown, after seeing it speeding and running a traffic light on Youngstown-Poland Road in Struthers.
While stopped, Amy pulled down her pants and urinated near a rear tire of the red 1995 Oldsmobile Achieva. The act was recorded by a video camera in a police cruiser.
The women did not appear to be intoxicated, the report said. They told police they had been at a Youngstown tavern, but Deanna wasn't served because she was under age.
With Deanna driving, the women followed officers to the police station to call for a ride home and use the restroom. At the station, Deanna put the car into reverse to leave, then blew out a front tire when it hit a curb. Yet she continued to drive, the report said.
After Deanna stopped the car, police removed the sisters from the vehicle.
They were brought to the station and placed in an interrogation room, where they began screaming profanities at officers and pounding on doors and windows. Deanna urinated into a trash can, then used it to strike a window.
Police struggled to separate the women from each other, and Deanna's top was ripped, exposing her breasts. Police said she refused to put on a jail jumpsuit they gave her; the sisters alleged that police did not provide the jumpsuit until their father arrived.