UPDATE | Judge issues gag order in Hamad case

WARREN — The judge in the Nasser Hamad aggravated murder case, Ronald Rice, has issued a gag order.

It followed a filing by the prosecutor in the case and Wednesday asking for attorneys to be restrained from talking to the news media following several earlier remarks from the attorney for Hamad.

Chris Becker, assistant county prosecutor, said the gag order would “ensure a fair trial for all parties involved and avoid a change of venue [to another county] at great cost for all parties ...”

Becker filed the request today in common pleas court in advance of the hearing at which Judge Rice issued the gag order.

The filing says Atty. Geoffrey Oglesby of Sandusky, who stood in for Hamad at Hamad’s arraignment March 2, has made at least three “extrajudicial statements to the media” since then.

Becker’s filing says comments Oglesby made Thursday after the arraignment were excessive, “with the sole purpose to try this case in the media and to create an atmosphere hostile to seating a fair and impartial jury.”

Hamad, 47, of state Route 46 in Howland, is charged with two counts of aggravated murder and several counts of attempted aggravated murder in a Feb. 25 confrontation in his front yard near the Eastwood Mall.

Police say five people arrived at Hamad’s home around 4:25 p.m., with the youngest, John Shively, 17, having a fistfight with Hamad. Shively and another man, Bryce Hendrickson, 20, engaged in Facebook taunts earlier in the day with Hamad, police said.

When the fight was over, Hamad went into the house, retrieved a gun and started firing at the five, who had returned to their van, police said.

Becker said in one interview March 2, Oglesby questioned whether Hamad was being treated fairly in the charges filed against him.

Becker quoted Oglesby as saying: “Can minorities stand their ground like other people?” and “It seems like when minorities stand their ground they get charged ... And it appears to be, I hate to say it, based on his ethnicity in this particular case, and its truly unfortunate, but we feel he will be exonerated.”

According to Becker, on Tuesday, Oglesby said, “I doubt very seriously whether or not Hamad knew he was in or out of the house when he was getting hit upside the head.

“I don’t think he said, ‘Well let me see, are they technically in the house or not in the house, but I’m going to get killed if I don’t do something.’”

The filing says all of Oglesby’s comments were “based on his personal opinions and not on any facts since he has not received any of the [pretrial evidence from the prosecution] in this case ...”