Pretrial hearing set

Pretrial hearing set

CORTLAND

At a Sept. 24 pretrial hearing in Central District Court, visiting Judge David Fuhry will consider an amendment to a charge faced by Gary Mink, former Cortland police chief, according to court records.

Mink, 61, was charged with leaving the scene of an accident and failure to control his Jeep on state Route 46 in Bazetta Township after the vehicle entered the ditch and hit a culvert June 24. Cortland police followed a mud trail to Mink’s house about two miles away. Mink didn’t answer the door when an investigator with the Ohio State Highway Patrol went to his house.

But the next day, Mink told an investigator he suffered no injuries and planned to notify law enforcement of the crash within 24 hours.

Court records say the visiting judge at an Aug. 13 pretrial hearing agreed to have a second pretrial hearing to consider a leaving-the-scene charge.

Plea in assault case

YOUNGSTOWN

A woman charged with assaulting one woman and smashing vehicle windows during a youth football game Saturday pleaded not guilty during her Monday video arraignment in Youngstown Municipal Court. Shanell Tomlin, 27, faces one misdemeanor count of assault and one misdemeanor count of menacing, according to court records.

She’s accused of striking a woman in the face multiple times and using her son’s football helmet to smash another spectator’s windshield and driver’s-side window during a little league tournament Saturday afternoon at Harding Elementary, attended by more than 250 people, according to a police report.

Judge Carla Baldwin set Tomlin’s bond at $3,000, or 10 percent cash or surety, which Tomlin posted Monday, records show. The report does not indicate how the altercation began between Tomlin and the victims. School grounds keepers, however, told police surveillance footage of the incident would be available.

Kidnapping thwarted

YOUNGSTOWN

A Crandall Avenue man told city police he fended off a kidnapping attempt after being robbed by four men Friday near the intersection of Park and Ford avenues on the North Side. The man’s father reported the incident to Youngstown Police Department on Saturday.

The man said he was approached by an unidentified white woman in a vehicle who asked him a question he didn’t understand. Soon after, four unidentified black males – believed to be in their 20s – approached him in a black SUV and asked the same question. They got out of the SUV and held him down, taking $3 the man had in his pocket and then attempted to drag him into the SUV. The man was able to fight them off and get away. The men fled in the SUV.

More Digest on A4