Tuesday, July 21, 2015
By Joe Gorman
YOUNGSTOWN
A man who is in the Mahoning County jail on $50,000 bond involving his seventh domestic-violence arrest was one of three people arraigned Monday in assaults over the weekend.
Jonathan Kuzan, 35, of Lake Drive, was arrested about 1:10 a.m. Sunday and charged with felony domestic violence after reports said he beat his girlfriend in a car in front of their 8-year-old daughter, who screamed “Daddy, no! Daddy, no!” in the area around Mill Creek Park.
Reports said the woman called Kuzan because she was in an accident. Reports said Kuzan and their daughter picked up the woman, and as they were driving on Canfield Road, he began punching and grabbing her.
He then pulled into the parking lot for Lanterman’s Mill in Mill Creek Park, got out of the car and continued to hit her as the daughter screamed.
The woman managed to run away to a house on Canfield Road, where the homeowner let her inside, locked the door and called the police. The woman was covered in blood when police arrived.
City Prosecutor Dana Lantz told Judge Robert Milich on Monday at Kuzan’s arraignment that the victim is hospitalized with a collapsed lung, ruptured spleen and several stitches.
In June 2013, police arrested Kuzan on charges of beating a woman and sending her to the hospital, but Lantz said it is not clear if that woman is the same victim. A child who was 6 at the time also was involved in that incident.
Kuzan was one of three people charged with helping Martin Koliser, who killed a Youngstown police officer, in 2003 when Koliser escaped to Florida for a short time.
He served six months in the jail for an obstruction-of-justice charge after he pleaded guilty.
Besides the 2013 arrest, Kuzan’s domestic-violence arrests include two from 2008, one from 2010, one from 2011 and one from 2012.
Also arraigned on a misdemeanor charge of assault was Cheree Moore, 36, of East Boston Avenue, who is accused of smashing a wine bottle into a woman’s head several times about 12:20 p.m. Sunday.
Moore served a four-year prison sentence on a voluntary-manslaughter charge for the shooting death of her 36-year-old uncle Edward Moore in the driveway of her Cohasset Drive home in July 2000.
The municipal court computer file for Moore shows 25 criminal charges filed since 1998.
Lantz said the charge Moore currently faces could be upgraded to a felony depending on the severity of the victim’s injuries.
Moore pleaded not guilty to the charge. Judge Milich set a bond for her of $10,000 as well as a no-contact order with the victim.
Also arraigned on a misdemeanor assault charge was Brittan Kimbrough, 20, of Ellenwood Avenue. Police arrested him about 2:30 p.m. Saturday on Pyatt Street on the South Side.
Reports said a woman in the 1000 block of Lois Court told police Kimbrough is the father of her unborn child and they recently ended their relationship.
Reports said the woman told police Kimbrough was upset she was talking to other women and he threw a folding chair at her, which hit her. He then chased her through the neighborhood with a BB gun and fired several shots at her, the woman told police.
Reports said the woman had a scratch, as well as a welt on her thigh and a cut on her arm. She complained of breathing problems and was taken to ValleyCare Northside Medical Center, reports said.
Kimbrough was found later and arrested. He pleaded not guilty at his arraignment.
Judge Milich set his bond at $5,000. Lantz said the charge could be amended to domestic violence once prosecutors interview the victim and determine the child she is carrying is Kimbrough’s.