43
Vienna officer cleared, grand jury indicts Houston man on OVI, fleeing
By Ed Runyan
WARREN
A Trumbull County grand jury has cleared Vienna Township police officer Thomas Barone III of any wrongdoing when he fired his service weapon at a driver who attempted to flee from him Nov. 18 after a traffic stop.
The same grand jury remanded two charges against the driver, Jason B. Utley, 43, of Houston, back to Girard Municipal Court as misdemeanors and refused to indict him on two other charges.
Utley had a blood-alcohol-level of .378 at the time, the county prosecutor’s office said in a Tuesday letter to Vienna Township police Chief Bob Ludt provided to The Vindicator. Utley’s alcohol reading was nearly five times the legal limit of 0.08 required to be legally drunk in Ohio.
Chris Becker, an assistant county prosecutor, said in the letter the grand jury received “all of the evidence” provided by special agent Charlie Snyder of the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation and concluded “that no charges were warranted against Officer Barone.”
The letter says Barone fired at Utley in the Centennial Drive cul-de-sac after Utley started to drive toward the officer. This came after Utley had tried twice before that to flee from Barone.
The letter says Utley had complied with Barone’s commands initially, after Barone made a traffic stop on his vehicle on Warren-Sharon Road just east of state Route 193.
But while Barone waited for backup officers to arrive, Utley fled in his vehicle into the dark, dead-end cul-de-sac, Becker said. The cul-de-sac was too large for Barone’s vehicle to block completely.
As Barone lived his vehicle to approach Utley’s stopped vehicle, Utley began to move the vehicle backward, then put it in drive and moved forward toward the cruiser, Becker said.
Barone, standing in front of his cruiser, fired once at Utley “as Utley passed Barone,” Becker said. The bullet grazed the rear of the front passenger seat and struck the rear passenger door.
Utley initially faced about a dozen charges because of his actions in Vienna and because of a crash on Warren-Sharon Road in Howland a short time earlier.
Barone made the traffic stop because law enforcement had alerted other departments to watch for a car that had been involved in a crash on Warren-Sharon Road in Howland.
The grand jury on Monday indicted Utley on misdemeanor fleeing and misdemeanor operating a vehicle impaired and refused to indict him on felony assault on a peace officer and misdemeanor driving under an OVI suspension.
If convicted on the two remaining charges, he could get up to a year in jail. Utley has remained in the county jail since his arrest Nov. 29.
Utley was convicted Jan. 10 in Warren Municipal Court of OVI and failure to stop after the crash in Howland.
A judge sentenced Utley to 180 days in the county jail with 127 days suspended. Utley already had served 53 days. His driver’s license was suspended “until further order of the court.”
Vienna Police Chief Bob Ludt said Tuesday that Barone made the initial traffic stop near a business owned by a passenger in Utley’s car – Matt Kleese of Diamond Oilfield Technologies, 4494 Warren-Sharon Road.
Barone detained Utley in Utley’s vehicle while waiting for Howland police to arrive. Barone allowed Kleese to enter his business to use the restroom, Ludt said. Some time later, Utley drove off without Kleese, leading to the gunshot being fired.