Alberini

POLAND — Restaurateur Michael Alberini is in trouble with the law again, and he apparently did not handle it well.

A Poland Village police report states that Alberini made several violent threats toward the officer who arrested him for operating a vehicle impaired Sunday.

Alberini appeared Monday in Struthers Municipal Court, where he is charged with failure to comply, a fourth-degree felony and aggravated menacing, a first-degree misdemeanor. Judge James Melone set a $5,000 bond on those criminal charges.

Alberini also faces a probation violation related to his 2022 conviction for violating a protection order.

His traffic charges include first-degree misdemeanors – OVI with refusal and failure to comply, and speeding, a minor misdemeanor.

A court employee said Alberini acknowledged the felony count and pleaded not guilty to the misdemeanors. He is scheduled to return July 8 when a visiting judge will preside over a pretrial hearing for the misdemeanors and a preliminary hearing for the criminal charges.

The report states an officer pulled over Alberini’s Cadillac Escalade about 4:30 p.m. as it was headed westbound on U.S. Route 224, allegedly doing more than 20 miles over the 25 mph speed limit.

The officer pulled out behind him, turned on lights and sirens, and pursued the Escalade, which did not stop until it nearly reached the Boardman Township line, close to Interstate 680.

When confronted, Alberini first said he was looking for a safe spot to pull over, then said he was trying to get to his restaurant, Michael Alberini’s, in Tiffany Square Plaza.

The report states that the officer detected a strong odor of alcohol coming from Alberini, and that his eyes were glassy and red and his speech was slurred. The report states Alberini refused to take field sobriety tests or submit to a breathalyzer. The officer immediately arrested him on an OVI charge.

The report states that during the encounter, Alberini repeatedly threatened the officer and especially his family. Alberini allegedly told the officer he “can’t wait to crush (his) family,” that the officer would “see them perish,” and continually expressed his hopes that the officer’s family would die, throughout transportation and booking. He also allegedly fired racial epithets at the officer.

The report states that during conversations at the police station, after refusing to sign the breathalyzer refusal form, Alberini allegedly admitted that he was coming from The Lake Club, where he had two alcoholic drinks, and that he did not believe he would pass a breath test.

PREVIOUS CASE

Struthers court records show that in Alberini’s 2022 case, he eventually pleaded no contest to the charge of violating a protection order in March 2023. He was sentenced to 30 days house arrest, three years of probation, and anger management and ordered to have no contact with the victim. However, Alberini appealed the ruling, and in July 2024 the 7th District Court of Appeals vacated the conviction.

Melone later recused himself from the case, and in April 2025, Alberini pleaded guilty to the charge. He was then sentenced to 180 days in jail with 174 suspended and served the six days in two three-day stints. He also was placed on three years probation and was prohibited from owning or accessing firearms.

In December 2021, Boardman police arrested Alberini after a domestic altercation at his Squirrel Hill Drive home when he blocked his wife from leaving and threatened a “standoff” if anyone came to the house. Officers reported seeing him with a semi-automatic rifle on his lap pointed toward the front door.

He later pleaded guilty to unlawful restraint and menacing and was sentenced to community service, two years’ probation and a $500 fine, with no contact with the victims, drug/alcohol assessment, anger management and no guns during probation.

A civil protection order was issued in September 2022. On Oct. 13, 2022, he allegedly arranged delivery of a check to his ex-wife with threatening words written on it, leading to the protection-order violation charge.

In 2024, Alberini also was found guilty after he was involved in a crash along Hitchcock Road that caused property damage and tried to hide his SUV from police after a witness reported the crash and followed Alberini to his home.