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Woman files suit over stabbing
YOUNGSTOWN
A New Springfield woman, one of four people stabbed or cut in a fight outside a tavern last year, has sued the now-incarcerated man who stabbed her in the neck, the tavern and the tavern operator.
Christina Longo, 26, of Springfield Road, sued her assailant, Ryan Powell, 27, of Garfield Avenue, East Palestine; the Petersburg Inn, 14156 Youngstown-Pittsburgh Road; and its operator, Robert Smith, Thursday in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court.
The lawsuit alleges tavern personnel continued to serve alcoholic beverages to Powell after he became obviously intoxicated, and failed to remove Powell from the premises when he initially became aggressive Feb. 20, 2010. Smith could not be reached to comment.
The suit, which demands a jury trial and seeks more than $25,000 in damages, says Longo, who was stabbed in the neck, has incurred medical expenses and lost income and future earning capacity as a result of the assault. The civil lawsuit, filed by Atty. J. Gerald Ingram, is assigned to Judge John M. Durkin.
In the criminal case stemming from the incident, Judge R. Scott Krichbaum of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court sentenced Powell last July to two years in prison after Powell pleaded guilty to felonious assault. Powell is at the Ohio State Penitentiary and will be on parole for three years after his release.
In the incident, Longo and her 25-year-old boyfriend, also of New Springfield, asked Powell, who was standing by her van, to move. Powell stabbed Longo and cut her boyfriend on his hand as he tried to protect her.
A 29-year-old New Springfield man, who also tried to protect Longo, was stabbed in his neck and cut above his eye, police said. A 29-year-old East Palestine man was cut on his hand as he wrested the knife away.
The three injured men refused medical treatment, and Longo was treated at St. Elizabeth Health Center in Youngstown.