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No duct tape required for city defendant
YOUNGSTOWN
He was once told duct tape could be placed over his mouth, but a more subdued Duniek Christian appeared in Youngstown Municipal Court for a hearing.
Christian, 26, of North Garland Avenue, was scheduled for trial Friday before Judge Elizabeth Kobly of Youngstown Municipal Court on charges of failure to reinstate his license and obstruction of official business. Atty. Mark Lavelle, representing Christian, asked the court to schedule a jury trial, and the case was rescheduled to Feb. 16.
Christian’s last appearance before Judge Kobly did not go so smoothly. He was before the judge earlier this month when he reportedly began acting disorderly in the court.
Judge Kobly found him in contempt of court and sentenced him to 30 days in jail for each time he was considered disorderly or disrespectful to the court. By the time the judge had him removed from the court, Christian had been sentenced to 230 days in jail for contempt.
According to police reports, the judge also said she would have Christian’s mouth duct-taped shut if he could not behave himself in her court.
Christian appeared wearing the Mahoning County jail-issued orange jumpsuit with hand and leg shackles, but there was no mention of duct tape. He answered the judge’s questions, received his next court date and was led out of the courtroom.
His legal problems are not over, however. He has charges on possession of drugs and failure to reinstate pending before Judge Robert Douglas of Youngstown Municipal Court. A county grand jury also indicted Christian on felony charges of failure to comply with the order of a police officer, felonious assault and aggravated robbery.
Christian has a pretrial scheduled Feb. 2 before Judge James Evans of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court on the felony charges.
Christian was arrested in early November after leading police on a chase through the East Side while driving a stolen car. He had been wanted on warrants over a 2005 gunbattle with police that led to the felonious-assault charges pending against him.
In 2005, Christian was accused of driving the stolen car with three other men while they shot at seven police officers.
Police had been searching for Christian since May 2010 and got word that he was back in the area.
In the early morning of Nov. 10, police had Christian and two other men under surveillance while they were parked in a driveway on Northwood Avenue on the East Side.
According to police reports, when police started closing in on them, Christian drove through a wooden fence onto Karl Street. He drove to Myron Avenue, where he and the others got out of the car and fled into the woods. They were apprehended a short time later.
Christian already was tried once in the 2005 case in August 2008, but was released after the jury deadlocked on whether he was guilty of complicity to felonious assault.
The county prosecutor’s office appealed the decision of Judge Evans that Christian could not be tried again after the deadlock.
The 7th District Court of Appeals ruled Judge Evans erred, and the case could be retried. In March 2010, the Ohio Supreme Court refused to review an appeal by Christian, leaving the appellate court’s ruling intact. The prosecutor’s office was then free to retry the case.