Saturday, October 31, 2015
By Ed Runyan
WARREN
A detective with the Warren Police Department described as “disturbing” an Oct. 22 video that shows a girl, 11, being “slammed into a door” by a staff member of the STEAM Academy, 261 Elm Road.
Detective Nick Carney said the video is not ready for public release, but it identifies the staff member as Marcus D. Crum, 39, of Warren. Crum is listed on the school website as a parent liaison.
Crum is charged with misdemeanor assault and was arraigned Friday morning in Warren Municipal Court. He pleaded not guilty and was released on a personal-recognizance bond, meaning he did not have to pay anything.
Carney said Crum turned himself in to Carney earlier Friday so that police would not have to arrest him on a warrant that had been issued.
“We’re very fortunate in this incident that it was caught on tape,” Carney said. “Without video, it’s going to be her word against his word, but with video you can ID him plainly and ID the victim in this case very plainly. It helps tremendously.”
The girl’s mother took her to ValleyCare Trumbull Memorial Hospital on Oct. 22 and then Akron Children’s Hospital in Boardman, Carney said. The girl reportedly had injuries to her head and neck.
The girl was in fifth grade at the public-charter school for students in kindergarten to grade 8.
The girl’s mother filed a police report the next day, saying the assault occurred about noon. The girl has not been back to the school since the incident, Carney said.
A call Friday to the school’s principal was not returned.
Judge Terry Ivanchak of Warren Municipal Court told Crum he should not return to the school while the case is pending.
Carney said the video will not be ready for release until the police department determines how to block out the faces of about 20 other students in the hallway where it happened. Carney said there also are adult witnesses.
Crum, who gave the judge an address on Drexel Avenue Northwest, has had nine misdemeanor criminal cases in Warren Municipal Court since 2005 — five of them in 2009 for having a vicious dog with no insurance. The four others also were dog-related.
Twice in October 2009 and once in December 2009, he was cited for failing to provide insurance for two pit-bull dogs at his house on Sweetbriar Street Northwest, Warren police said. In one instance, one of the dogs was running loose.
He was arrested on warrants in August 2013 related to the charges and appeared in Warren Municipal Court, where he pleaded no contest to a single vicious-dog charge and was placed on two years’ probation. The other counts were dismissed.
The STEAM Academy recently changed ownership from Mosaica Education Inc. of Atlanta to Pansophic Learning of McLean, Va. In addition to the STEAM Academy, Pansophic also acquired the Youngstown Academy of Excellence on Rigby Street and other schools outside the Mahoning Valley.
The STEAM Academy site is in the former St. Mary’s High School and St. Mary’s Middle School property.
The sale price for the nearly one-acre property and 46,000-square-foot building constructed in 1948 was $2 million. The seller was Warren Elm Facilities LLC, which bought it from the Youngstown Diocese in 2007.