Grand jury declines to indict Warren man

WARREN — Daniel Boone, 39, of 241 Penn Ave. N.W., who was charged with felonious assault last summer in the midst of a neighborhood feud involving teenage girls and pit bull dogs, has had charges dropped against him.

A Trumbull County grand jury refused to indict Boone on Monday.

Boone was accused of hitting Tracy Mathews, 18, with a baseball bat Aug. 12 near Mathews’ 442 Penn Ave. house, as part of what police called an ongoing neighborhood dispute between members of Boone’s family and members of Mathews’ family.

In an interview with The Vindicator, Boone had denied hitting Mathews with a baseball bat — but said he did hit him with his fists.

Members of both families say they began to have problems after Boone’s 13-year-old niece and Mathews’ 14-year-old sister got into a fight. In the months that followed, police were called to the neighborhood numerous times regarding the two families. Many of the calls involved a pit bull dog at the Mathews residence that neighbors said threatened people’s safety.

On the Sunday afternoon when the baseball incident was alleged, Boone said he went to the Mathews residence because he was told that Mathews was threatening his sister, Monica Hussing, who lives one street over, with the pit bull.

Around the same time as the baseball bat incident, police charged Mathews’ mother, Lisa Wright, 38, with having a vicious dog and allowing it to run at large. She was convicted on those charges Oct. 16 in Warren Municipal Court and fined $60.