YOUNGSTOWN — Visiting Judge H.F. Inderlied has extended the civil stalking protection order Struthers Mayor Catherine Cercone-Miller obtained against Struthers Municipal Court Judge Dominic Leone III an additional two years — until May 4, 2025.

In his ruling, released Monday, Inderlied ruled that Leone “engaged in a pattern of conduct that knowingly caused (Cercone-Miller) to believe that (Leone) would cause physical harm to (Cercone-Miller) and knowingly caused mental distress to” Cercone-Miller.

The order pertains to Miller only, not her family, and allows Leone to resume possession of firearms. Miller requested that the order cover her and her family. Magistrate Dennis Sarisky of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court ordered Leone on May 4 not to possess firearms while the temporary protection order against him was in place.

Inderlied’s order continues the terms of the May 4 ex-parte (meaning without both parties being involved) protection order regarding the Struthers City Building, allowing Leone to have access to his court chambers, courtroom and the clerk of courts office for official business and the building’s parking lot.

Leone must otherwise stay at least 500 feet away from Miller. The municipal court and Miller’s office are both in the city building.

The judge’s ruling changes the protection from a temporary civil stalking protection order to a “full hearing” civil stalking protection order. The order could have been for as long as five years.

Leone could not be reached to comment, but his attorney, Peter Pattakos, released a statement saying “Judge Inderlied’s order — which does not even mention the First Amendment let alone analyze how Leone’s comments about Miller could have fallen outside of its well established protections — reflects an egregious disregard for our most fundamental constitutional rights as U.S. citizens, and we expect it will be reversed on appeal.”

Miller could not be reached for comment. Her attorney, Lynn Maro, said she had not yet spoken to her client and had “no comment other than that at this time.”

The ruling came a few weeks after a four-hour hearing May 18 in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court where Miller and Maro presented five witnesses, but Leone and Pattakos did not present any, a fact Judge Inderlied mentioned in his “findings of fact,” saying Leone called “no witnesses, not even himself.” The judge noted that Leone offered three exhibits, which were admitted into evidence.

Miller sought the protection order May 4, saying she feared for her safety and the safety of her family and employees in the Struthers City Building. Her petition said Leone harassed her when they were at the same polling place in Struthers on May 2, primary-election day. She said he called her names and said he would “get rowdy” with her.

She testified May 18 that at the polling place, someone said something about not getting “rowdy,” and Leone told Miller from a couple of feet away, “We can get rowdy. Let’s get rowdy. We can get rowdy right now if you want to.” Miller said she backed away.

Leone’s bailiff, Cheryl Host, testified that Leone had been making “very loud, screaming” remarks about Miller in the Stuthers City Building. She said the remarks began in January. Leone would start to yell about Miller, calling her vulgar names if he saw her or if someone mentioned her name, Host said. None of the remarks involved threats of physical violence, she said.

During questioning of Host by Pattakos, Host said Leone’s loud remarks about Miller got “bad” around the time Miller started supporting Leone’s opponent in the primary, common pleas court magistrate James Melone, who won the election.

Pattakos told The Vindicator after the May 18 hearing that Leone’s remarks about Miller were protected speech, saying it is “very, very offensive to our democracy, to the First Amendment, to the most fundamental values this nation was founded on” that someone would try to stop Leone from expressing his opinions about Cercone Miller.

Pattakos stated in a recent filing in the case that Miller’s request for a protection order was her attempt to have a judge “punish what is no more than vulgar, coarse or offensive speech that was … uttered entirely at public places and … in a political context between and about elected officials in the same city.”

Pattakos quoted from a 1944 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that states “One of the prerogatives of American citizenship is the right to criticize public men and measures, and that means not only informed and responsible criticism but the freedom to speak foolishly and without moderation.”

During his closing argument May 18, Pattakos said Miller was not able to show that Leone “engaged in conduct constituting menacing by stalking, meaning that he had to knowingly cause her to believe he was going to cause her physical harm or mental distress. It cannot be the mental distress that comes with politics. This cannot be the type of mental distress that comes from political disputes,” Pattakos said.

In her closing arguments, Maro said none of the statements witnesses made during the hearing suggested that Leone’s comments toward and about Miller were about Leone’s court budget or other political matters.

“Every time he bellowed down that hallway (in the Struthers City Building) vulgarities, it was about personal attacks on Catherine Miller. It wasn’t about politics.”