Reports: woman chokes, stabs, beats man as he's driving


By Joe Gorman

jgorman@vindy.com

YOUNGSTOWN

A Tyrell Avenue woman was arraigned Friday in municipal court after police reports said she hit a man driving a car in the head with a perfume bottle, tried to choke him with the cord from a cellphone charger and stabbed him with a fork.

Aaliyah Clark, 21, is in the Mahoning County jail on $7,500 bond after her arraignment before Judge Elizabeth Kobly on charges of child endangering and assault. She is required to post 10 percent of that bond to get out of jail.

Reports said officers called to the West Side about 2:10 p.m. Thursday for a fight in a car found the vehicle on Greenwood Avenue. Reports said the driver told police he was arguing with Clark, who was upset she was in the back seat of the car because Clark did not like the driver’s front-seat passenger.

Clark accused the driver, who is also her boyfriend, of spitting on her, which was when she attacked him, reports said.

The whole time the attack was taking place, the man was still driving and there was a child in the car, reports said.

The driver also bit Clark while Clark was choking him, and he told police that he yelled at her while they were arguing and that is why some saliva flew out of his mouth, reports said.

The driver had marks around his neck as if he were being choked and also had puncture wounds in his shoulder from where he was stabbed with the fork, reports said. Clark did have bite marks on her arm, reports said.

Reports said Clark was charged because she escalated the situation. She originally was charged with felonious assault, but that charge was downgraded to misdemeanor assault when she was arraigned.

Clark pleaded with Judge Kobly to give her a much-lower bond. She said her child is with a neighbor who might not be able to keep the child for very long, and she does not want the child to go to the county Children Services Board. She said other than her boyfriend, she has no family or friends to help her.

“I have no one to help me – I mean no one,” Clark said.

Judge Kobly said that she had no choice but to set a bond for Clark.