43
Judge agrees to drop charge over victim’s objection
By Joe Gorman
YOUNGSTOWN
Judge Lou A. D’Apolito on Wednesday agreed with a request by prosecutors in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court to drop a charge of felonious assault against a Lisbon woman.
However, the victim in the November 2014 shooting in Austintown objected, and he even brought an attorney with him.
Holly Powell, 41, was charged with felonious assault, purportedly for wounding a man inside a township home Nov. 13, 2014.
However, Jennifer Paris, an assistant prosecutor, said her office wanted to dismiss the charge because the statements of the victim match the evidence collected by police.
The evidence does seem to back up the statements of Powell at the time, Paris said.
Atty. James Gentile, representing the victim, said he was opposing the request. Gentile said the prosecutor’s office needed to have good cause to dismiss the case and doesn’t have it.
“This is a huge injustice to [the victim],” Gentile said.
The victim testified and said he remembers telling the police one version of the shooting which landed him in the hospital right before he went to surgery the night he was shot. The victim said when he returned home from the hospital, he noticed blood on the floor of the home where he got shot, and it jogged his memory and he told police another version of events.
Paris said the decision to dismiss the case was made after she and her supervisors in the prosecutor’s office, Nick Modarelli and Lynette Stratford, met with investigators from the Austintown Police Department. Paris said although the decision to dismiss the case was made by her supervisors, she said she agrees with it.
Judge D’Apolito said it is the duty of the prosecutors to only charge people with crimes if the facts line up with the evidence.
The victim was shot after an argument with Powell, who he was romantically involved with at the time. It was expected Powell would plead self-defense if she went to trial. Gentile said a jury could decide if she acted in self-defense but Judge D’Apolito said the case should not go to trial if prosecutors believe the evidence doesn’t fit.
“I don’t think they should throw this on the citizens of the county and have a crapshoot if they don’t think the case should go to trial,” Judge D’Apolito said. “It’s not fair to bring it to trial just to save face.”