Metro digest || McDonald BOE to cut personnel

McDonald BOE to cut personnel

McDONALD — Additional personnel cuts will be acted on by the McDonald Board of Education at a special meeting 4 p.m Sunday at the high school library.

Schools Superintendent Michael Wasser said the board will go directly into executive session, and when it comes out, there will be action to make additional personnel cuts.

The state Financial Planning and Supervision Commission on Thursday ordered that the district make $400,000 more in cuts in addition to $518,497 in cuts the board proposed initially. The new cuts are to be presented to the commission at a meeting at 1 p.m. Monday at the high school.

The commission also told the superintendent and Treasurer Brian Stidham it did not want the district to go to voters with a proposed five-year, 6-mill emergency levy to generate $1.6 million over five years.

Bond set at $1 million in double slaying

WARREN — Appolonia E. Baker, 25, Miller Street, Youngstown, charged with aggravated murder in a double homicide in Liberty, made her initial appearance Friday in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court. Her bond was set at $1 million cash or surety. She remains in the county jail.

Baker’s pretrial hearing will be at 8:45 a.m. Thursday in common pleas court. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for 9 a.m. March 15 in Judge John Stuard’s courtroom.

She and four others are charged the murders of Wilneice L. Green and her 13-year-old daughter, Ja-Brajasia, on Nov. 15, 2009. They were killed at their residence, 3022 Northgate Drive.

Melvin L. Turner, 36, is being held by police in Baltimore, according to Liberty Police Chief Richard Tisone.

James M. Christian, 20, of Youngstown is in the county jail.

Arrest warrants issued by the Trumbull County prosecutor’s office are out for Marquese J. Floyd, 25, and Denise L. Jackson, 25. All the suspects have criminal records.

Lawsuit dismissed

YOUNGSTOWN — A lawyer for the distributor of the Feb. 16, 2008, Kelly Pavlik vs. Jermain Taylor boxing championship fight has dismissed a lawsuit he filed Feb. 12 against Cosmo’s Tavern and Grillery, 1722 S. Raccoon Road.

Atty. Jeffrey L. Koberg of Cleveland filed the dismissal notice Friday in U.S. District Court, where he had sued the tavern on behalf of J. & J. Sports Productions Inc. of South Pasadena, Calif., which said it had exclusive television distribution rights to the fight.

The suit said Cosmo’s showed the fight without permission, but Samuel Cera Jr., tavern owner, said he paid J. & J. in full for the fight before it occurred. Cera said the lawsuit was filed in error, likely because of confusion stemming from a name change at the bar, which had been known as Sammy’s Pub and Grill until 2005.

City, firefighter sued

YOUNGSTOWN — A South Side man is suing the city and one of its firefighters for $1,900 in medical bills he said he incurred after a fire engine making a left turn en route to an emergency hit his car.

Beondre L. Kimbrough Jr., of East Avondale Avenue, said in his lawsuit that he was westbound on Philadelphia Avenue and stopped at Cottage Grove Avenue on Sept. 11, 2008, when his car was struck by the firetruck driven by Eugene J. Cook Jr., who negligently caused the crash.

The suit was filed in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court and assigned to Judge John M. Durkin. City Law Director Iris Torres Guglucello declined to comment.

Gunmen rob 3 men

YOUNGSTOWN — Police are looking for three men who robbed and pistol-whipped three friends at gunpoint just outside a South Side home.

According to police, a 21-year-old Griffith Street man and two of his friends, no ages or addresses given, were leaving the Griffith Street home on the North Side just after 7 p.m. Thursday when three men, all armed with firearms, approached and demanded their possessions. Two of the men were beaten with guns in the process. The men handed over cameras, cell phones, jewelry and wallets containing cash, and the robbers fled.