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CANFIELD - The Mahoning County prosecutor urged a judge to reject a motion by the attorney for the man accused of allegedly lunging at Democratic gubernatorial candidate Amy Acton to exclude evidence that he was in possession of weapons at the time of the incident.
Patrick Havas, 38, of Canfield, faces four misdemeanors related to the Sept. 6 incident at the county Democratic Party tent at the Canfield Fair. They are two counts of assault and one count each of inducing panic and disorderly conduct.
At the time of his arrest, Havas had two handguns and a pair of taser-brass knuckles on his possession, but no weapons were brandished or removed from their holsters, according to law enforcement reports. As Havas pushed his way through the crowd, he had a cellphone out, according to the sheriff's office.
At his Sept. 8 arraignment in area court in Canfield, Mahoning County Prosecutor Lynn Maro said, “I know others thought there should have been charges related to the weapons. The weapons were never unholstered, removed, used, brandished in any way, utilized in this incident. Quite frankly, there were no charges under the Ohio Revised Code that would fit for simply possession of those weapons."
Maro added: "Nothing rose to a felony charge in our current review. Investigations are ongoing. We're working closely with the sheriff's department and the state patrol as they gather evidence and we'll continue to do that."
J. Gerald Ingram, Havas' attorney, filed an Oct. 1 motion requesting that Judge Molly K. Johnson not permit evidence that his client had weapons on him to be part of the case, pointing to Maro's comments to the newspaper.
In a Wednesday response, Maro and Shantell George, an assistant county prosecutor, wrote: "The fact that the defendant had on or about his person multiple weapons is relevant to the inducing panic charge. The state requests the court deny the defendant's motion."
They wrote: "Determining what is relevant evidence is based upon common experience, logic and discerning analytical connections between the proffered evidence and some fact which is of consequence to deciding the action at trial."
They added: "In this case, evidence of the defendant possessing firearms and brass knuckles is significant because it is directly relevant to the inducing panic charge, which has been filed against the defendant."
State law "requires some type of disruption, discomfort, distress or fear" and "in this instance, the evidence is clear that there was a great deal of disruption and fear caused by the defendant's actions. The fact that some of the individuals present observed weapons on the defendant contributed to the panic caused by the defendant's actions," Maro and George wrote.
They wrote: "Possession of the weapons (certainly) is relevant to the reckless nature of his conduct. The defendant acted knowingly in pushing his way through the crowd, resulting in injury to individuals present in the tent. He acted with reckless disregard to the likelihood that his actions would cause serious public inconvenience and alarm to those present in the tent."
Acton's security detail, which was made up of Ohio State Highway Patrol troopers, confronted Havas, and as that was happening, two people were knocked to the ground, the sheriff’s office report states.
Havas's charges are related only to injuries to the two people in the crowd and that he allegedly caused a panic.
While Havas allegedly pushed his way toward Acton to get to her, Maro said he never had any contact with the gubernatorial candidate and "never gets near her."