Drug-sale suspect fought, police say

The suspect had 64
packaged-for-sale bags of crack cocaine, police said.

YOUNGSTOWN — Nelson L. Franklin got that “deer-caught-in-the-headlights” look when he ran into officers working a Weed and Seed detail, police said.

Nelson threw a cell phone to his right and a plastic sandwich bag filled with crack cocaine to his left, police said.

He then reportedly struggled to get away from Patrolmen Robert Giovanni and Greg Mullennex at the Westlake projects on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard.

During the tussle around 12:05 a.m. Thursday, the officers and Franklin fell to the ground and he began to throw punches, reports show. Everybody got up, only to fall again and roll down a hill, with Giovanni hitting his nose on a chain-link fence and then getting smacked in his upper lip.

The fight continued after Patrolmen Malik Mostella and Patrick Mulligan arrived, with Franklin lifting all four officers up off the ground. The struggle didn’t stop until Detective Sgt. Kevin Mercer and Officer Bob Martin of St. Elizabeth Health Center police showed up, reports show.

In all, police confiscated 64 packaged-for-sale bags of crack cocaine and $148.

Franklin, 31, of Sherwood Avenue, was arraigned Thursday via video in municipal court. He is charged with aggravated trafficking in cocaine, resisting arrest and two counts of assault on a police officer. Judge Robert P. Milich set bond at $155,000 and a preliminary hearing for Oct. 24.

Pete Klimis, an assistant city prosecutor, told the judge that it took six officers to subdue Franklin.

Klimis went through a lengthy list of Franklin’s past arrests and convictions, including drugs, guns, felonious assault, robbery, involuntary manslaughter and attempted murder.

“My record ain’t that long,” Franklin told the judge.