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Hearing set for detective who violated gag order
By PETER H. MILLIKEN
YOUNGSTOWN
A judge has scheduled a contempt-of-court hearing for a detective with the Milton Township Police Department, who is investigating the case of a former reserve township police officer charged with gross sexual imposition and menacing by stalking.
Judge R. Scott Krichbaum of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court has ordered Detective Jeff Lewis to appear before him at 10 a.m. Friday to show cause why he should not be held in contempt of court.
In a judgment entry, Judge Krichbaum wrote that Lewis violated his order barring investigating officers from discussing with the media the case of Jeffrey A. Christy, who faces the gross sexual imposition and stalking charges.
Christy, 31, of Salt Springs Road, Niles, who is on leave from his job as a part-time Lowellville police officer, resigned as a Milton Township reserve officer while he was under investigation for these charges.
The judge scheduled the contempt hearing after Christy’s lawyer, Anthony P. Meranto, complained that Lewis was quoted concerning the Christy case in an Alliance Review article published the day after the judge issued the gag order.
In an April 14 pretrial hearing in the Christy case, Judge Krichbaum told Dawn Cantalamessa, an assistant county prosecutor, to immediately instruct investigating officers not to discuss the Christy case with the media.
The county grand jury indicted Christy on one count each of gross sexual imposition and menacing by stalking, reportedly involving a Beloit woman, and one count of menacing by stalking, reportedly involving a Lake Milton woman.
The felony-level charges stem from Christy’s time as a Milton Township reserve officer between January 2008 and July 2009.
The 35-year-old Beloit woman alleged Christy harassed her by pulling her over eight to 10 times over six months, once grabbing her by the neck and forcing her to kiss him.
Lewis told the Alliance newspaper that investigators are using other reported incidents, which are not included in the indictment, to “establish a pattern of conduct by Christy.”
Meranto has filed a motion for a change of trial location due to excessive publicity, but the judge said he’ll defer a ruling on that issue until he can determine the impact of pretrial publicity during questioning of potential jurors.