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Man arrested on ethnic intimidation charged before

37-year-old has been arrested several times in the past

YOUNGSTOWN — A man arrested on three charges each of ethnic intimidation and aggravated menacing this week has been charged with intimidation before, according to the prosecutor.

In an initial appearance before Judge Carla Baldwin in Youngstown Municipal Court, Craig L. Hall’s bond was set at $18,000 — $5,000 for each fifth-degree felony ethnic intimidation charge he’s facing, and $1,000 for each first-degree misdemeanor aggravated menacing charge, according to assistant Prosecutor Eugene Fehr.

Hall, 37, of Southern Boulevard, is accused of using racial slurs while taunting a black police officer and two black bystanders after crashing in the 1600 block of Weston Avenue in the Brownlee Woods neighborhood about 9:45 p.m. Tuesday.

Fehr said the three ethnic intimidation charges came as a result of racial slurs being used during aggravated menacing — suggesting his threats may have been related to the victims’ race.

Hall has been charged with ethnic intimidation before — in June 2014, he was charged with two fifth-degree felony counts. Fehr on Friday did not know the circumstances of those charges.

Ethnic intimidation is always charged one degree above the accompanying charges. In the Tuesday incident, the three aggravated menacing charges are a misdemeanor 1, so the intimidations are charged at felony 5 level.

“We really don’t charge this a lot,” said Fehr of the intimidation.

Hall has been charged with a host of other violent acts, including assault in 2001, two counts of felony assault with a firearm specification in 2003 and two counts of felony assault in 2009. He was charged with disorderly conduct in 2008, August and November of 2013, and in 2017, with another charge pending from January of this year, according to records gathered by Fehr.

“Because he has this history of turbulent behavior, we charged him with the felony,” Fehr said.

A police report chronicling Tuesday’s episode states Hall was “extremely agitated” and witnesses reported that he had been “terrorizing” the neighborhood. He had a serious ankle injury but denied driving or crashing, despite witnesses saying otherwise.

When officers tried to speak to Hall, he started screaming at people nearby and threatened two black males, whom he called a derogatory name. Hall also said he is a Piru, which is a common name for the Bloods criminal gang, the police report states.

An officer tried to convince Hall to go the hospital, and he used the same derogatory name in a threatening manner toward the officer, who is black, according to the report.

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