Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Gill could get up to six months in jail.
STAFF REPORT
AUSTINTOWN — Heidi Gill, the former Howland woman who made national news in 2007 when a police video showed a Warren police officer using a Taser on her, has pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor assault charge for an episode in an Austintown restaurant this past summer.
Township police charged Gill, 39, who now uses a Lockwood Boulevard, Boardman, address, with assault and disorderly conduct in July for slapping, punching and pulling out the hair of an 18-year-old Austintown woman in a 3 a.m. incident at the Denny’s restaurant on Mahoning Avenue.
On Monday, she pleaded no contest to the assault in Mahoning County Court in Austintown and was found guilty by Judge David D’Apolito. A disorderly conduct charge was dismissed.
She could get up to six months in jail and a $1,000 fine when Judge D’Apolito sentences her at 6 p.m. March 2.
Police said the victim was waiting to pay at the front register with two of her friends when Gill walked into the restaurant. Witnesses heard Gill tell another woman: “I’m gonna slap someone.”
When the woman turned around, Gill slapped and punched her. Employees separated the two. Witnesses, including a Denny’s employee, said the attack was unprovoked.
When police arrived, Gill had a large clump of brown hair clenched in her right hand and was screaming vulgarities.
On Sept. 2, 2007, Warren Patrolman Richard Kovach was attempting to arrest Gill outside of the Up A Creek Tavern on East Market Street when he used his Taser on her.
Kovach’s police car video shows a screaming Gill being repeatedly Tasered and injured when she hit her head against Kovach’s police cruiser.
Kovach was suspended for 60 days for his treatment of Gill on the grounds that he used unreasonable force.