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Woman kicks, spits on cops and nurses
By Joe Gorman
YOUNGSTOWN
Police say a city woman kicked a police officer several times and spit on another officer and several nurses after she was found rolling around in a Market Street parking lot just after midnight Wednesday.
Lisa Marchionda, 49, was arraigned in municipal court later Wednesday on misdemeanor charges of assault, resisting arrest, disorderly conduct and a felony charge of expelling a bodily fluid at a police officer.
City prosecutor Dana Lantz said some of the charges may be upgraded to felonies if they make it to the grand-jury level when Mahoning County prosecutors have a chance to interview officers who were present.
Two officers on patrol saw Marchionda rolling around in the parking lot of a 3200 Market St. gas station, and they stopped to see what was going on, reports said. Reports said she appeared to be very drunk, and told police her brother died three days ago and it was his birthday. Employees of the station said she came into the store drunk, screaming and cursing at other customers and when they told her to get out of the store, she went outside and lay down in the parking lot.
An ambulance came, but Marchionda would not settle down and refused to let paramedics treat her. Her behavior continued, despite warnings she could be arrested, reports said. When she started swearing at customers who were trying to get gas, she was arrested and placed in the back of a cruiser. At the county jail, however, she refused to get out of the cruiser.
She complained of a bad back but was able, in handcuffs, to turn herself upside-down and kick the ceiling and back windows of the cruiser.
The jail nurse said she was too drunk to be admitted to the jail, and she was instead taken to St. Elizabeth Health Center.
At the hospital, she repeatedly kicked an officer and said she was a professional kickboxer. She was slobbering, and after an officer asked if she wanted her face wiped off, she spit on him, reports said.
She said she was not under arrest, and when staff tried to sedate her, she spit on a nurse and kicked two other nurses, reports said.
Eventually, her arms and legs were bound and she was given a sedative that put her to sleep, reports said.
A preliminary hearing has been set for 10:45 a.m. Wednesday.