Man earns magistrate rebuke for 'smoking crack' remark

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

An Aurora Drive man earned a threat of a contempt-of-court charge Friday after he said officers who had arrested him Christmas Eve in an incident of trespassing at St. Elizabeth Youngstown Hospital had to be “smoking crack.”

Andre Davis, 40, was being arraigned before Magistrate Anthony Sertick in municipal court on charges of criminal trespass and disorderly conduct when he told Sertick that the report of his arrest by Humility of Mary Health Partners police about 7:25 a.m. Wednesday was hard for him to believe.

“Do your officers smoke crack on a daily basis?” Davis asked as he was being arraigned via video hookup from the Mahoning County jail.

Magistrate Sertick told Davis, who had interrupted several times, that if he did not stay quiet he would be held on a contempt-of-court charge in the jail for 30 days.

“I don’t appreciate those types of comments when it comes to anyone, be it law enforcement or anyone else,” Magistrate Sertick said.

A police report said an officer saw Davis leave the lobby of the hospital and then sprint like he was chasing someone toward another part of the hospital, reports said. When an officer caught up with him and asked him why he was running, reports said he became very combative and told the officer his girlfriend was waiting for him.

The officer revoked his visiting privileges, and he then began arguing more vehemently with the officer, reports said.

Davis was then told he was under arrest but he resisted efforts to be handcuffed, and it took two officers to get his arms behind his back and cuffed, reports said.

He was taken to a holding area before being transported to the jail where he continued swearing and yelling, at one point so much so that a dispatcher told him to be quiet, reports said.

At his arraignment, Davis claimed he could not be banned from the hospital because it is a public area. He was given a bond of $12,500 by Magistrate Sertick.