Judge stresses timeline in Havas case

CANFIELD -- A man accused of an attempted assault on gubernatorial candidate Dr. Amy Acton at the Canfield Fair appeared in court for a pretrial hearing Friday.

Since Patrick Havas, 38, of Canfield, was arrested at the fair on Sept. 6, prosecutors have determined that while he possessed a gun and brass knuckles at the time, he did not brandish any of those weapons and there was no evidence to warrant any felony charges.

Havas faces multiple misdemeanor charges, including two counts of assault, one count of inducing panic and one count of disorderly conduct.

The gun and brass knuckles were the focal point of a motion filed by Havas's defense attorney, Jerry Ingram. The motion in limine, discussed at Friday's pretrial hearing, seeks to block Judge Molly K. Johnson and the Mahoning County Prosecutor's Office from mentioning any weapons Havas had on him at the time.

"If a firearm or weapon was not brandished, displayed, or otherwise used during the offense conduct, mere possession is immaterial. That is precisely the case here. Even detaining law enforcement officers were unaware of the presence of a firearm until their attention was directed to the gun by the defendant," the motions states.

Ingram even cited Mahoning County Prosecutor Lynn Maro's own words in making his argument:

"I know others thought there should have been charges related to the weapons," Maro told The Vindicator in a Sept. 9 article. "The weapons were never unholstered, removed, used, brandished in any way, (or) utilized in this incident. Quite frankly, there were no charges under the Ohio Revised Code that would fit for simply possession of those weapons.”

Ingram's conclusion explains the importance, in his mind, of excluding any mention of the weapons.

"Their mention would invite the jury to speculate that defendant intended to use them or that their possession made the charged conduct more threatening than the evidence shows. It would also shift attention from the charges alleged to an assessment of his character based on his possession of firearms. Because that inference supplies an improper basis for a verdict, any marginal probative value is substantially outweighed by the dangers of unfair prejudice and confusion of the issues,” Ingram said.

The hearing also focused on the timeline of the trial. Johnson -- who is running unopposed for the Ohio Seventh District Court of Appeals and will end her term in Canfield in February - said she will not allow the case to fall to her successor if she can help it.

On Friday, Johnson granted a requested continuance, but said she wants to know by November if Havas intends to seek a jury trial. She said it usually takes her court about 90 days to empanel a jury and a trial would have to happen in January to maintain her intended timeline.

To that end, Ingram said a hearing on his motion in limine will likely determine whether a jury or bench trial is chosen. He first proposed having a hearing on the matter on Nov. 6, the same day as the next scheduled pretrial hearing, but Johnson said that even if the motion were granted then, it would still create timeline problems.

The motion hearing was instead set for Oct. 23.

Johnson also asked about evidence discovery and Ingram said there were no major problems.

"I have no discovery complaints, and if I do, I will forthwith file a motion advising the court of those complaints and request a hearing in short order," he said.

Ingram and Maro both noted that while the prosecutor's office has provided Ingram with everything they have, some evidence is still outstanding.

While Maro's office provided more evidence to Ingram Friday morning, she said there is more to come.

"The issue was the law enforcement was ghosted by the Acton camp. They weren’t responding. The chief of the criminal division (John Juhasz) sent a letter. They hired an attorney who drove up last week to give us supplemental discovery," Maro said. "I don’t believe we have everything. Based upon our review with attorney Ingram this morning, there will be additional information we’re going to seek from that attorney and from law enforcement."

Authorities say Havas pushed through a crowd, toward Acton, while recording on his phone, knocking down and injuring two people, before members of Acton’s security detail stopped him. Initial media reports, locally and statewide, implied that Havas had attempted to attack Acton, but local law enforcement have been emphatic that that does not appear to be the case.

His charges are related only to the injuries to the two people in the crowd and the fact that his alleged actions caused a panic.