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Judge orders psychological evaluation
YOUNGSTOWN
A Youngstown man charged with punching a police officer and attacking a former cabaret owner downtown will be spending time in a mental institution.
Keith Slade, 27, of East Dewey Avenue, appeared Thursday before Judge James C. Evans of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court for a mental-competency hearing.
Atty. David Gerchak, representing Slade, filed a motion claiming his client should be found incompetent to stand trial.
Slade is charged in the attack on Atty. Sebastian Rucci in downtown Youngstown and with punching a police officer. Rucci is the former owner of the Go Go Girls Cabaret in Austintown.
According to police, Slade walked up to Rucci outside the Thomas D. Lambros Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse on Market Street in November and punched the attorney in the face several times.
Witnesses said Rucci’s face was bloodied from the attack.
Police caught up with Slade on the Market Street bridge, and he at first acted as if he would submit to arrest, but he then took a fighting stance against the two officers.
One officer tried to place handcuffs on Slade but was punched in the side of the face before Slade was subdued and arrested.
Gerchak told the court at the competency hearing that Slade could not stand trial because of his mental state.
After the hearing, Judge Evans ordered Slade sent to Heartland Behavioral Health Services in Massillon, where he can be evaluated. After six months at that facility, the judge will re-evaluate Slade.