BOARDMAN — Cardinal Mooney High School head football coach and athletic director Carl Pelini is ordered to stay away from his wife after pleading not guilty to domestic violence — and he’s off the football field.

Pelini turned himself in to police Tuesday on a domestic violence warrant stemming from a Sunday incident.

A police report states officers at the Boardman Police Department were told Pelini would arrive, and he did about 7:30 a.m. He was escorted inside the building and booked “without incident.”

Pelini posted $2,500 bond and was told to be in Mahoning County Court in Boardman an hour later.

In the court before Judge Joseph Houser, Pelini pleaded not guilty, and bond was continued. He also was ordered to have no contact with the victim, his wife Julie, according to a police report of the Sunday incident at their home in the 8400 block of Ivy Hill Drive.

Although he made his initial appearance in the Boardman court, the case will be heard before Judge Molly K. Johnson in county court at Canfield. The change of venue comes from a possible conflict of interest between Houser and Pelini, according to court records and officials.

A court date before Johnson will be set shortly, officials in both courts said.

Pelini is accused of domestic violence after his children called 911 and reported Pelini’s wife was bleeding and had a black eye just after 2:30 a.m. Sunday.

A caller told police dispatch her parents were fighting and the father left in a white Ford Escape. The report states that a son in the home was awakened by a loud banging and called the victim who answered the phone crying. The report states he went to check on her and saw blood on the kitchen floor.The report also states the son tried calling Pelini. Eventually, using an iPhone application, the son was able to see Pelini was driving on Interstate 76 near Lake Milton at 3:14 a.m.

According to the report, Pelini and the woman were having an argument and police were told the woman “bit (Pelini) on the arm” and he was then told to leave.

His wife told police there was an argument, but said “it all happened so fast.” She could not provide further details “due to her emotional state and being intoxicated,” the incident report states.

She was taken to St. Elizabeth Boardman Hospital for medical treatment.

Cardinal Mooney High School officials said Pelini would be placed on administrative leave, pending an investigation.

Mike Tucci, who is on the coaching staff as an assistant, was named the interim head football coach by Mooney President Tom Maj. As for the athletic director position, Jim Jablonski will continue to serve as associate athletic director.

The school would not specify if Pelini’s leave was paid or unpaid, and according to the school’s director of communications, Vince Taddei, the school would not share Pelini’s contract information. Pelini was hired as head coach in July 2020.

After his initial stint as Youngstown State University’s defensive coordinator between 2015 and 2017, Pelini spent a season as the defensive coordinator and interim head coach at Bowling Green State University. He returned to YSU in 2019.

The 1989 YSU graduate also coached at high schools before taking over Cardinal Mooney’s program in 2020. He coached at Mooney as an assistant and was also the head coach at Austintown Fitch from 2000 to 2002. Pelini also was an assistant coach in the college ranks at Kansas State, Minnesota State, Ohio, and Nebraska.

nhawthorne@tribtoday.com