Bench trial finds Warren fire chief innocent of misdemeanor assault

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Warren Fire Chief Kenneth Nussle

The judge said Warren police failed to prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt.

STAFF REPORT

NILES — Warren Fire Chief Ken Nussle has been found innocent of hitting a former girlfriend in her Trumbull Avenue home.

Niles Municipal Court Judge Thomas Townley rendered a verdict in the case Tuesday, saying the Warren Police Department “failed to establish the case beyond a reasonable doubt.”

Townley presided over the case last week in Niles Municipal Court. It was prosecuted by Niles Prosecutor Terry Swauger.

Warren Municipal Court Judges Terry Ivanchak and Thomas Gysegem had recused themselves from the case, as had the Warren city prosecutor.

The misdemeanor assault case was handled as a bench trial, meaning without a jury.

Nussle, reached Tuesday afternoon by phone, said he is glad the case is behind him so that he can focus on putting together a 2009 fire department budget.

“We have a lot of crucial decisions to make,” he said.

Nussle’s former girlfriend, Marcie DiCenso, 48, filed a report Feb. 2 with the Warren Police Department, saying Nussle, 44, of Warren, hit her with an open hand, kicked her in the ribs and spat on her in the early hours of Jan. 31.

During the trial, witnesses testified that DiCenso had been drinking wine at a private club on Chestnut Street in Warren that evening and Nussle was drinking a nonalcoholic beverage.

Another person at the club had to carry the woman to Nussle’s car, witnesses said.

Nussle said he never hit the woman.