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Christy case won’t be split, judge decides
By Jeanne Starmack
YOUNGSTOWN
Two plaintiffs
Photo
Jeff Christy
can stay joined in one case against a part-time Lowellville police officer, but the state cannot include in the case actions that don’t concern those plaintiffs.
Mahoning County Common Pleas Judge R. Scott Krichbaum ruled on two motions Tuesday in the case against Jeff Christy.
Christy was indicted March 31 and is on unpaid leave from Lowellville’s police department. He faces one count of menacing by stalking and gross sexual imposition involving a Beloit woman in 2008, and one count of menacing by stalking involving a Lake Milton woman between December 2008 and April 2009.
A charge of public indecency involving a third plaintiff was dropped April 14 because a two-year statute of limitations had run out.
Judge Krichbaum ruled against a motion by the defense to separate the case into two, one involving each plaintiff.
“What we don’t want is a jury to rely on information from one case to convict in another, Christy’s attorney, Anthony Meranto, explained before the hearing in the judge’s chambers.
Judge Krichbaum said, however, that he didn’t want the “victims’ lives on hold.” After considering appeals court rulings and upon review of other case law, he said, he overruled the motion for separation.
The defense fared better on its motion to exclude prior bad acts. Judge Krichbaum sustained the motion.
“The state should not charge someone based upon some unproven other conduct except in rare circumstances,” he said.
That ruling means the state cannot bring up complaints from two women who said they encountered Christy in Lowellville in January 2009. Those women reported to the police department that Christy sexually harassed them, but charges were not filed based on their complaint.
Christy’s trial is set for May 10.