Facebook posts and ‘unpleasantness’ toward Niles employee don’t qualify for protection order, magistrate rules


By Ed Runyan

runyan@vindy.com

WARREN

A Trumbull County magistrate ruled Wednesday that the Facebook posts George Kuriatnyk Jr. has written about a Niles employee and the instances in which Kuriatynk photographed and videotaped the worker did not rise to the level necessary to approve a civil stalking protection order.

After a three-hour hearing, Magistrate Patrick McCarthy ruled that Niles Parks and Recreation worker Mark Holmes did not prove that Kuriatnyk, of McDonald and Niles, had committed menacing by stalking.

He heard testimony from both men and two other witnesses and looked at copies of Facebook posts submitted as evidence before saying that Kuriatnyk’s unfounded allegations on Facebook about Holmes showed “incredibly bad judgment,” but didn’t meet the legal definition of menacing by stalking.

McCarthy took time at the end to tell Kuriatnyk he “has no qualms” about Kuriatnyk being a government “watchdog,” but advised him to avoid being among the multitudes who use social media “in an incredibly juvenile way.”

Kuriatnyk posted a photo and commentary on Facebook in November accusing Holmes of wrecking his city-owned truck after working hours – an allegation Holmes said was untrue. Kuriatnyk posted other allegations about Holmes in the weeks that followed, Holmes said, providing McCarthy with copies of the posts.

There also were times when Kuriatnyk, 52, who said he’s unemployed, would see Holmes in his city vehicle and turn around to follow him, Holmes said. Holmes estimated there were between six and 12 such instances. One instance was documented in a Niles police report from April 13.

In another police report, from April 19, an officer wrote that Kuriatnyk was seen near Holmes while Holmes worked on a baseball field in Waddell Park. Kuriatnyk had been ordered to stay away from Holmes because of an emergency, temporary order from McCarthy, so Niles police asked him to leave the area, the report said.

Another report says Kuriatnyk had come to the city building April 13 and was harassing employees. Such allegations led to a discussion at a recent Niles City Council meeting about the need to bring back a laid off Niles police officer to provide security at city hall.

“He basically has the city building and city employees terrorized,” Holmes said.

His boss, Carmen Vivolo, the parks and recreation department director, said Kuriatnyk’s behavior had affected Holmes’ job performance and caused the normally confident Holmes to become fearful for his safety, including times when he’s been in the parks offices in city hall.

“He is wearing out a rug looking out the window seeing who’s out there,” Vivolo said of Holmes.

When the magistrate asked Kuriatnyk whether he was the author of the posts Holmes provided, Kuriatnyk was evasive, which McCarthy later called “a bunch of hooey.”

“Don’t insult my intelligence,” McCarthy told Kuriatnyk of not answering questions about specific Facebook posts that came from Kuriatnyk’s Facebook account.

McCarthy said social media sites such as Facebook have become like “passing notes in school” in today’s age, and 90 percent of the stalking cases he hears involve some form of social-media “unpleasantness.”

Some do qualify for a protection order – such as when people threaten to kill someone – but not this one, McCarthy said.

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