Man charged with violating protection order moments after it was granted
Staff report
WARREN
It’s not every day a person violates a civil stalking protection order before they even leave the protection order hearing.
But that is what Thomas D. Brown, 21, of Ardmore Court in Niles and Edgehill Avenue in Warren, is charged with doing Monday.
Deputies arrested Brown after he attacked the man who filed the protection order. The hearing on the third floor of the Trumbull County Courthouse had just ended.
Magistrate Patrick McCarthy advised the man requesting the protection order he was free to leave while asking Brown to remain so McCarthy could verify Brown’s contact information.
But Brown, sitting in front of McCarthy not far from the other man, left his seat and attacked the other man. McCarthy pulled Brown off of the other man while another employee contacted deputies.
Brown was taken to the Trumbull County jail, where he was booked on misdemeanor assault, violating a protection order and disorderly conduct. He is likely to be arraigned today.
McCarthy had just granted a five-year protection order against Brown after the other man alleged Brown, his former roommate, had vandalized his home, continuously tried to contact him and “tried to burn my house down by pouring grease on the floor and trying to light it.”
The other man also alleged that Brown had “made repeated [unwelcome] romantic advances” toward him.
A police report written by deputies at the courthouse says a deputy spotted the fight from security cameras they were monitoring.
When they got to the hearing room, McCarthy was holding back Brown after the assault. Deputies said they also observed Brown spitting toward the other man.
When questioned by deputies, Brown admitted to attacking the other man. The scuffle was recorded on courthouse security cameras.