Judge delays decision in Warren chief’s assault case

Photo

Warren Fire Chief Kenneth Nussle

A woman testified that the fire chief assaulted and spat on her.

STAFF REPORT

NILES — A former girlfriend of Warren Fire Chief Ken Nussle testified that the chief hit her with an open hand, kicked her in the ribs and spat on her in the early-morning hours of Jan. 31.

Nussle testified that he took the woman to her Warren home around midnight, left when she woke him up later and ordered him out of the house but did not hit her.

The testimony came Wednesday in Niles Municipal Court before Judge Thomas Townley, hearing the case on assignment after Warren Municipal Court Judges Thomas Gysegem and Terry Ivanchak recused themselves because of familiarity with both parties.

The evidence was heard by the judge, not a jury.

The woman, Marcie DiCenso, 48, filed a police report Feb. 2 with the Warren Police Department saying Nussle assaulted her after a verbal altercation. Police noticed injuries on the woman, but she refused medical assistance.

Nussle, 44, on trial on a misdemeanor assault charge, said he drove DiCenso to a private club on Chestnut Street Southeast, where he drank a nonalcoholic beverage and she drank wine.

By the time the couple left the club around midnight, DiCenso “appeared to be very intoxicated and had trouble getting around,” Nussle said.

Another person at the club carried DiCenso to Nussle’s car, and Nussle drove her to her house on Trumbull Avenue, Nussle said.

Inside the house, Nussle said he heard a thud and helped DiCenso off the floor and into bed. Nussle stayed at the house with DiCenso that night until DiCenso woke him up with nudges in his back and DiCenso telling him: “Go. Go. Go.”

Nussle got up from the bed, took her cigarettes for her safety, told her not to ever call him again and left, he said.

He never hit her, the chief added.

Nussle awoke a couple of hours later at home when DiCenso called his house and left a message on his answering machine, which was played during the trial.

In it, DiCenso said Nussle had also spat on her 18 times.

In her testimony, DiCenso said she had five to six servings of wine that night but was not intoxicated.

Townley said he would take the case under advisement and decide it later.