METRO DIGEST || Skype lecture on Climate Wars

Climate Wars lecture

YOUNGSTOWN

Michael E. Mann, director of the Earth Science Center at Penn State University, will give a free Skype lecture at 7 p.m. today in Youngstown State University’s Cushwa Hall Room B100. His lecture is titled “The Hockey Stick and the Climate Wars.”

Mann received his undergraduate degrees in physics and applied math from the University of California at Berkeley, a master’s degree in physics from Yale University, and a doctorate in geology and geophysics from Yale.

There is free on-street parking after 5 p.m. at the metered parking spaces along Lincoln Avenue and nearby campus streets.

Indecency at Macy’s

BOARDMAN

A Newton Falls man is charged with public indecency after being accused of performing a sexual act at Macy’s in the Southern Park Mall.

Township police arrested Kyle Few, 21, on Monday after a store employee reported he and multiple customers witnessed Few performing a sexual act on himself while standing in the store’s boys department. Police said Few admitted the allegation was true, and the incident was caught on video surveillance.

Attack at YSU

YOUNGSTOWN

A 20-year-old woman told Youngstown State University police she struck a man in the genitals who tried to take her backpack about 6:50 p.m. Monday on the path between Ward Beecher Hall and Maag Library on campus.

The woman said a man walking behind her grabbed her backpack and placed a hand over her mouth. The woman then stepped on the man’s foot and struck him before he ran off.

The woman said she waited 25 minutes before calling police. When asked why, reports said she was on the phone with her mother while she was waiting for her father to pick her up.

She described the man as between 5 feet 5 inches to 5 feet 6 inches tall with dark skin.

Baseball-bat attack

BOARDMAN

An Austintown man faces a second-degree felony charge after police said he assaulted someone after a road-rage incident.

Joseph Mondora, 44, is charged with felonious assault for the incident, which occurred Monday night in a Boardman-Poland Road parking lot.

The victim told police Mondora hit him with a baseball bat after following him to the parking lot. The victim reportedly suffered injuries to his arm and possibly a broken hand. Mondora was taken to the Mahoning County jail.

Patient molested

YOUNGSTOWN

A former nursing home worker was arrested Monday on a warrant charging that he molested a patient at a Canfield Road care facility.

Gilbert Macali, 26, was arrested at a Patchen Street SE home in Warren on a charge of gross sexual imposition and is expected to be arraigned in municipal court today.

A report states that police were called about 8:10 p.m. Sept. 23 to Camelot Arms, 2985 Canfield Road, where they were told by an employee that a 93-year-old female patient had been assaulted by Macali.

The patient was examined at St. Elizabeth Boardman Hospital, the report said.

Dollar store robbery

YOUNGSTOWN

Witnesses said a man with a tattoo on the side of his head jumped over the counter of a Dollar General store, 2981 McGuffey Road, about 7:10 p.m. Monday and took $214 from the register.

Reports said the man came to the counter to pay for an energy drink when he said, “Unfortunately, this is a robbery,” then jumped over the counter and took the money. The man then ran out of the store, reports said.

Domestic violence

YOUNGSTOWN

A man arrested Monday on a warrant for domestic violence and receiving stolen property is also on probation for a domestic violence case earlier this year.

Justin Clark, 26, is in the Mahoning County jail on charges by Mill Creek MetroParks Police of domestic violence and theft of a motor vehicle.

Reports said an officer was called to Bears Den Cabin about 11:20 a.m. Sept. 19, where a woman told them Clark punched her repeatedly, then stole her vehicle. Reports said the vehicle was found on West Chalmers Avenue later in the day.

Clark pleaded no contest to an amended charge of misdemeanor domestic violence in Mahoning County Area Court in Boardman on June 30 and placed on probation. Records also show Clark was sentenced to two years’ probation in Youngstown Municipal Court on an aggravated menacing charge in 2014, and he served a four-year sentence on a charge of failure to stop after an accident for a 2009 traffic accident in which someone died.

Remodeled home fire

HOWLAND

Howland Fire Department and Ohio State Fire Marshal’s Office have determined that the Monday morning fire at 7705 Macawber Road was intentionally set.

The fire marshal has established a reward of $5,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person or persons responsible for the fire. Call 330-856-5022.

The fire marshal’s crime dog alerted on multiple areas of the home, indicating that an accelerant was used to start the fire, Howland Fire Chief James Pantalone said.

The fire was reported at 12:11 a.m. Monday. The home was vacant, and there were no injuries. Damage estimate is $120,000. The home had been remodeled and was about to go on the market, Pantalone said.

Car window smashed

STRUTHERS

Police arrested a Struthers man Monday on a misdemeanor charge of criminal damaging and endangering after receiving multiple calls about a man smashing out the window of a car. Officers arrived and met Michael Terlecky, 21, at his Creed Street apartment. Terlecky told police he had followed his girlfriend outside with a baseball bat after an argument, according to a police report. The 21-year old woman told police that Terlecky had smashed out a window of her car. The woman also told police that Terlecky had choked her and slapped her in the face, the report states. Terlecky was booked, then released on a $100 bond. He will be arraigned today in Struthers Municipal Court.

Child-sex sentence

YOUNGSTOWN

A Magnolia Avenue man has been sentenced to five years in prison after a jury convicted him of gross sexual imposition on a girl between the age 8 and 10 at the time of the offense.

Robert Johnson, 56, drew the maximum sentence Tuesday from Judge Shirley J. Christian of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court.

The offense occurred between Sept. 1, 2011, and May 31, 2013, according to the indictment.

Johnson, who denied any wrongdoing, will be on post-release control for five years after prison and must register as a sex offender with the sheriff every six months for 25 years. He will get credit for the 597 days he’s already been jailed.

Home invasion

WARREN

Louis T. Taylor, 37, of East Ravenwood Avenue in Youngstown and Parkman Road in Warren, is being held in the Trumbull County jail without eligibility to make bond after a not-guilty plea was entered for him in Warren Municipal Court to aggravated burglary.

A Beal Street Northwest man told police a man entered the Lane Drive Southwest apartment of his girlfriend at 8:30 a.m. Monday while he was sleeping and punched him in the face and threatened to kill him. He had severe swelling to his face. The suspect took the victim’s cellphone and about $35 from the victim’s pants pocket. The victim fled from the apartment. Police were called to South Street and Pine Avenue Southeast to apprehend the suspect, found Taylor in the back seat of a car and took him into custody.