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Girard man pleads guilty in accident that hurt officer
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Ryan T. Battison
WARREN
Ryan T. Battison, 26, of Tibbetts Wick Road, Girard, pleaded guilty to aggravated vehicular assault and failure to stop for an accident in a Nov. 6 hit-and-run in which a Girard policeman was hurt.
Battison pleaded Tuesday in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court before Judge W. Wyatt McKay.
The judge ordered a presentence investigation, which typically takes about 30 days, and then a sentencing date will be set.
In the Nov. 6 incident, Battison drove his vehicle into Girard police Capt. John Villecco and then left the scene.
The police captain had stopped a vehicle in the southbound passing lane in the 900 block of South State Street (U.S. Route 422) in Girard about 1 a.m. He arrested its driver on a drunken-driving charge. As Villecco checked the vehicle before arranging for it to be towed, Battison’s southbound vehicle went left of center and hit Villecco while he was outside his cruiser, despite his attempts to leap out of the way, police said.
Patrolman Steve Lewis, who was transporting the arrested suspect to the police station, saw the hit in his rearview mirror and pursued the hit-skip driver, police said. Battison traveled south on South State Street and pulled into a lot in the 1000 block of the street. He abandoned his vehicle, fled on foot into a wooded area near the railroad tracks there and eluded capture. Police identified Battison as the driver through car-ownership records.
Villecco suffered a fractured left wrist and was treated at St. Elizabeth Health Center, Youngstown.