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Assault charge related to Niles court scuffle sent to grand jury
By Ed Runyan
NILES
One week after two Warren brothers were arrested after being accused of assaulting a Weathersfield police officer during a scuffle involving two officers at Niles Municipal Court, one brother was back in court Wednesday.
Noah S. Allen, 19, of Southwest Boulevard, waived a preliminary hearing Wednesday on felony assault and obstructing official business charges filed against him for his role in the scuffle, and his case was bound over to a Trumbull County grand jury.
Judge Chris Shaker continued Allen’s $250,000 bond, which has kept Allen in the Trumbull County jail since the Nov. 21 scuffle. There were no incidents in Wednesday’s hearing.
His brother, Joshua T. Allen, 17, of Maryland Street in Warren is in the Trumbull County Juvenile Justice Center awaiting a second hearing in Trumbull County Juvenile Court on two felony counts of assault on a peace officer and single counts of obstructing official business and disorderly conduct.
He will remain in the juvenile justice center until that hearing, said Stanley Elkins, assistant county prosecutor. Elkins said he did not know the younger Allen’s next hearing date.
Court video of the scuffle shows Noah Allen angrily leaving the courtroom with Weathersfield police officer Jacob Sigley behind him, then Allen’s brother bursting through the courtroom door and straight toward the officer as he was trying to handcuff Noah Allen.
Another camera captured Weathersfield police officer Jack Porter grabbing the younger Allen and wrestling him to the floor. Porter had some bruising on one hand from the takedown. Porter has been a police officer 37 years, starting as a deputy under then-sheriff Jim Traficant of Mahoning County.
He now works security for Niles Municipal Court under a contract the court has with the Weathersfield Police Department. Sigley was handling transport of prisoners to and from the county jail.
Joshua T. Allen was in the courtroom as an observer of his brother’s hearing. Noah Allen was in court Nov. 21 on a misdemeanor assault charge stemming from allegations that he, Joshua Allen and a third male assaulted a Pennsylvania man, 20, leaving the Family Dollar store, 331 Robbins Ave., at 10 p.m. Aug. 12.
The victim had swelling to the side of his face and eye and was taken to the hospital for treatment. The Allens and the third male were all charged with assault.
A call to Atty. Robert Root, the public defender who represented Noah Allen in the Nov. 21 hearing, was not immediately returned.