Pretrial hearing set for former officer

STAFF REPORT

NEWTON FALLS — A pretrial hearing is set for 9 a.m. March 31 in municipal court here for Thomas Colosimo, 35, the former volunteer Newton Township police officer accused of lying to police about having been shot while on duty last July.

Colosimo of Newton Falls pleaded innocent to the first-degree misdemeanor charge Friday and was released on bond.

The Trumbull County Sheriff’s Department investigated Colosimo’s contention that a man shot Colosimo in his bulletproof vest near a cell phone tower off Miller Graber Road while Colosimo was investigating suspicious activity.

Sheriff Thomas Altiere and former sheriff’s Detective Peter Pizzulo said last July the facts didn’t support Colosimo’s version of events, and they closed the case.

But after Pizzulo was accused of wrongdoing involving a fundraising campaign he ran and Colosimo insisted that he had not lied, another detective, Maj. Thomas Stewart, reopened the case.

Last week, Stewart said evidence he gathered also indicated Colosimo lied.