Jury acquits ex-cheerleading coach

The former coach is looking to file an excessive-force complaint against the officers who arrested her.

STAFF REPORT

YOUNGSTOWN — Ex-cheerleading coach Angela J. Jones, acquitted of resisting arrest and obstruction of official business, intends to file a complaint against the arresting officers.

“I feel good — I just prayed it would happen this way. I put it into God’s hands,” Jones said moments after the verdicts were read Wednesday afternoon in municipal court. “I’m going to relocate to Atlanta; my son will be going to school there.”

Jones said she intends to file an excessive force complaint against the officers who arrested her.

The jury trial took place over two days with Judge Elizabeth A. Kobly presiding. Six women and two men started deliberating at 2 p.m. Wednesday and reached a verdictat 3:30 p.m.

Bret Hartup, assistant city prosecutor, had no comment after the verdicts were read and no jurors wanted to comment. Defense attorney Edward J. Hartwig said he expected the verdict, based on the facts, and is happy for his client.

Jones, 39, of East Ravenwood Avenue, testified Wednesday that she was slammed to the floor at Chaney High School and repeatedly struck in the face by two patrolmen. She swore under oath that she did not resist arrest. On the contrary, she said she put her hands behind her back to be handcuffed Oct. 4, 2007, believing the event would be recorded by a school security camera near the attendance office doors.

That particular camera, however, was not operational that day, according to testimony last month at an evidentiary hearing.

Jones, who is not a teacher, had her volunteer coaching arrangement at the Hazelwood Avenue school end the day she was arrested.

Jones said in court that Patrolmen Rick Baldwin and Michael Bodnar used excessive force on her. She said Patrolman Dave Wilson wasn’t in on the arrest, despite his testimony.

Wilson testified that Jones knocked him down when she opened a door near the attendance office, he sprang up and grabbed her as she began to retreat into the school through a second set of doors. She yelled and refused to give up her hands for the handcuffs, he said.

Wednesday, Hartup asked Jones if she ever filed a report about the alleged assault by Baldwin and Bodnar.

Jones said she did not and would not have been believed. She added, “my attorney advised me to not do it yet.”

Lt. Rod Foley, head of Internal Affairs Division, testified he was unaware that any complaint had been filed against the officers.

Hartwig asked Foley if he would investigate now if presented with testimony that Jones was hit. Foley testified he would.

Earlier testimony this week established that, prior to arrest, Jones had a heated argument with Baldwin over his interaction with her 18-year-old son, a senior at the school. Some, like Edna Douglas, a principal and assistant dean, testified that Jones screamed profanities at Baldwin, who was trying to disperse the lingering crowd that had gathered to watch two girls fight. Others, like Jones’ son and Remel Williams, cheerleading coach, said Jones didn’t swear.

After the confrontation with Baldwin, Jones was allowed into the school and told to stay with the cheerleaders because the students outside had still not dispersed. Her arrest took place within a minute or so of being let into the school.

Jones said when Baldwin yelled at her to keep the cheerleaders inside for safety, she pushed open the door and told him, “You could have said that nicer.” It was then, she said, that the door hit Wilson and he stumbled. She said he did not fall to the ground.

Baldwin, Jones said, then said: “Oh, that’s it, you’re under arrest.”

Baldwin testified that he saw Jones use the door to shove Wilson down and that Wilson and Bodnar took her to the ground when she refused to put her hands behind her back. Baldwin said neither he nor the other officers punched or kicked Jones during her arrest for assault on a police officer.

Charges of felonious assault on a police officer and a misdemeanor counts of failure to disperse and misconduct at an emergency against Jones were dismissed prior to trial. The felony charge was dismissed after Wilson was unable to identify Jones during a preliminary hearing, according to Vindicator files. No other testimony was taken at that hearing.

Jamie Ruffin, a 17-year-old Chaney varsity cheerleader, testified Wednesday that she was walking toward the double doors and overheard Jones yell out, “You could have said that nicer” to an officer. “I guess the door hit him,” she said.

Ruffin testified that two officers then pushed Jones and she hit the door. The teenager swore under oath that she saw the officers strike Jones in the side and elsewhere after she was handcuffed.

Jones, Ruffin said, didn’t scream for help.

Britney Jackson, an 18-year-old member of the Chaney dance line, said she saw Jones walking into the school, and the officer at the door turned to see who it was as the door was closing. Jackson next saw that officer and another patrolman follow Jones inside.

She said she heard Jones ask what’s going on and why were they touching her.

Jackson also described seeing one officer body-slam Jones and Jones being kicked three times while she was on the floor. Jones testified later that she wasn’t kicked, just hit in the face and head by the two officers.