Jury acquits Youngstown towing company owner

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

A man whose towing company has sued the city over alleged police harassment of his company has been acquitted of obstructing official business.

Alex Bugno, owner of Bugno Towing and Recovery, 1101 E. Indianola Ave., was acquitted of that misdemeanor charge earlier this week by a jury in Youngstown Municipal Court.

During an April 11 hearing concerning his pending civil lawsuit, Bugno testified a driver at the scene of a single-car accident authorized him to tow her vehicle, but a police officer wouldn’t let him and detained him as he was leaving the scene.

Bugno acknowledged that he had not been called to the scene, but learned of the Dec. 8 crash on the police scanner.

The lawsuit, filed April 1 in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court, says the city has been citing the towing company for violating a city ordinance that forbids towing companies from responding to accident scenes unless they are summoned there by police or a party to the accident.

The suit says the harassment has included “unwarranted investigatory stops, arrests, towing of plaintiff’s vehicles, citations for unsubstantiated zoning violations and the like.”

City Law Director Anthony Farris has called the lawsuit frivolous, denied any harassment by the city and said police have acted appropriately.