Man denies ballgame threat

By Ed Runyan

The accused said his medical problems make him especially fearful for his safety.

AUSTINTOWN — Dallas D. Lough, charged with aggravated menacing for purportedly pointing a handgun at a man near a baseball field, says he never pointed the gun at anyone.

The 64-year-old township man adds that bringing his gun to the game was an accident.

Lough said he had never brought his gun, for which he has a concealed-carry permit, to a baseball game before and had not intended to do so Tuesday.

But with the field being wet from rain, he thought Tuesday’s game was canceled and had taken his dog for a walk when he learned the game was back on.

Lough, who lives on Westchester Drive, said he carries his gun in his pants pocket when he walks his dog because the neighborhood can be dangerous.

Lough returned hastily to his home, leaving the dog there and forgetting to put the gun away, he said.

He was standing behind the backstop at the game, watching his grandson pitch in a game between 13- and 14-year-olds at Koch’s Baseball Complex on North Raccoon Road, when the trouble began.

First the home-plate umpire warned Lough that he had to stop distracting players. Lough said he was directing his grandson on the location of the pitches he wanted him to throw.

The other umpire, standing in the field, said Lough was also being vocal, calling the balls and strikes before the home-plate umpire had a chance to make his call.

The field umpire eventually asked Lough to move away from the backstop area.

Lough said he walked away from the backstop, about 75 to 100 feet from the field and down a hill toward Raccoon Road.

Lough said that he thinks some of the Struthers coaches thought he had been kicked out of the game, but that that was not true.

Lough said the Struthers coaches initiated the next thing that happened, “laughing and pointing” at him. Lough said he raised his hands in the air because he couldn’t hear what was being said.

Then a large man came out of the dugout and down the hill toward Lough — “looking like a pit bull,” he said.

The man was so angry, “spit was coming out of his mouth” as he talked, Lough said.

“He said, ‘I’ll kick your [butt] and knock your head off,’” Lough said. “I told him I’m on disability and can’t be hit. He said, ‘You run your mouth like you can afford to be hit.’”

“I said, ‘I have a gun and I have a permit to carry it,’” Lough said.

At that point, Lough said, he pulled up his shirt on the right side and showed the man that he was carrying a gun. He had his finger alongside of it, but never pointed it at the man or put his finger on the trigger, Lough said.

Lough said he is on Social Security disability and workers’ compensation because of injuries to his spinal column he suffered while falling down some stairs at work in 2002.

As a result of the injuries, Lough said, he “cannot allow anyone to hurt me.”

“I have so many conditions, if I even fall, it’s going to be trouble,” he said.

Lough said he believes showing the man his gun is the only thing that saved him from getting beaten up. “If he would have kept coming, I would have had to fire the gun,” Lough said.

The man who confronted Lough, however, told police the first words that were exchanged came from Lough. The man told police Lough said, “You guys can’t take a beating from Austintown.”

The man told police he told Lough: “‘We have no problem with you.’ As I went to say it again, he pulled out a .380 and said, ‘Don’t even come by me because I’ll shoot you.’”

A witness from Youngstown’s South Side told police he saw Lough point the gun at the Struthers man.

Lough is due back in County Court in Austintown on Sept. 15. If convicted on the charge, he could be sentenced to up to six months in jail.

runyan@vindy.com