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Canfield teacher found not guilty of 2 charges, guilty of 1
By ROBERT CONNELLY
CANFIELD
A Canfield middle-school teacher was found not guilty of domestic violence and resisting arrest.
However, Douglas Dawson, 48, was found guilty of violating a protection order. He will be sentenced in 30 days on that charge.
The verdicts came late Tuesday in Mahoning County Area Court after jurors listened to testimony for 81/2 hours. The jury began its deliberations about 9:40 p.m.
Dawson was charged with misdemeanor domestic violence, obstructing official business and resisting arrest as well as the protection-order violation. The case centered on a 2014 Thanksgiving night incident at Dawson’s home that began after one of his sons took a car from the family’s home.
Dawson and his wife argued about the son taking the car, but both differed during their testimonies Tuesday about what happened from there.
Dawson’s wife testified that Dawson put her in an upside down chokehold while she went for a phone that she had swiped out of his hand. Dawson testified that he went for the phone but his wife sat on the phone in a chair, then he pinned his arm against the chair.
Mahoning County Assistant Prosecutor Mike McBride told the jury during closing remarks that three witnesses, including Dawson’s wife, said Dawson put his arm around her neck.
But Atty. Albert Palombaro, representing Dawson, argued that Dawson did not cause any physical harm, and Dawson’s wife was the first aggressor by hitting the phone out of his hand.
“Did he cause physical harm? No,” he said to the jury.
A police report and Dawson’s wife testified that Dawson put her in a headlock and flipped her upside-down and pinned her on the bed.
That same report, and police testimony Tuesday, said that Dawson was arrested in a bedroom, led downstairs, began to resist arrest and was tased by an officer.
That happened after an officer was forced into a china cabinet after Dawson turned, the report and police said Tuesday.
Dawson and Palombaro argued that Dawson did not resist arrest and was turning around to continue to ask why he was being arrested.
The two also questioned why police did not take a statement from Dawson that night, while officials said he did write a three-page statement after he was booked at the Canfield Police Department.
The fact that a statement wasn’t taken from Dawson, followed by tasing a man who was in handcuffs led to “a botched investigation,” Palombaro argued.
McBride refuted that by saying the police on Thanksgiving night 2014, “gathered information and they gathered evidence that night.”
He further said, “they had three witnesses that were telling them the same thing.”
Dawson was put on special assignment in the Canfield School District after being a teacher at Canfield Village Middle School before.
The special assignment means he is not assigned to a room while he is on paid administrative leave while this case is worked out.
Canfield schools are expected to make a decision on Dawson’s employment based on the outcome of Tuesday’s trial.
Canfield Board of Education meets tonight and is expected to take a vote on Dawson’s employment status.
Attorneys spent about two hours on jury selection Tuesday morning, selecting four men and four women and one alternate.