Deputy attacked in court

May 24, 2013 at 12:00a.m.

By JOE GORMAN

WARREN

A 13-year-old Michigan boy is in the Trumbull County Juvenile Justice Center on charges of felonious assault on a police officer and obstructing official business, after a deputy sheriff was attacked in the courthouse just after noon Thursday.

The juvenile, from Pontiac, Mich., was attending an extradition hearing for Rickey Smith, 22, who was picked up by police at a home at Woodbine Avenue Southeast about 9:30 a.m. Wednesday on two warrants from Michigan for weapons charges, said Assistant Prosecutor Chris Becker.

Smith appeared before Judge Ronald Rice of common pleas court and complained that a chain around his stomach was too tight, a sheriff’s report said. A deputy checked it and thought it was fine, but Smith was cursing and Judge Rice ordered him to be removed, reports said.

As he was being taken out of the courtroom, some of his relatives tried to leave but they were told to wait until Smith was out of the courthouse, which is standard procedure when an inmate is taken out of a courtroom, said sheriff’s Maj. Tom Stewart.

The juvenile uttered an obscenity and tried to push a deputy away from the door, and as he wrestled with the deputy, the juvenile punched her in the face, reports said. A female relative of Smith’s was yelling at the deputy and trying to go out the door with the juvenile, but another deputy helped handcuff the juvenile, and the woman was made to sit down, reports said.

Stewart said the deputy has a bruise on the side of her face and a bruise on her elbow. The woman was given a warning by Judge Rice and let go, reports state.

As Smith was being led out of the courtroom, one of his leg shackles came off, and as deputies tried to put it back on, he heard the disturbance in the courtroom and resisted efforts to have the shackle put back on, reports said. Smith yelled that the boy inside was his brother, reports said. He calmed down after he was sprayed with pepper spray, reports said.

Becker said Smith will have his hearing at 10 a.m. today in front of Judge W. Wyatt McKay.