Criminal law, Society

Ohio Man Charged With Assault By Pizza On Girlfriend

kenneth-evans.pngAccording to police in Masury, Ohio, Kenneth Evans, 24, “was highly intoxicated and his mood was rapidly shifting” when he was arrested. His mug-shot might have been taken during the happy mood swing.  Evans is charged with hitting his girlfriend in the face with pizza.

What is interesting about the case is that Evas is not only charged with assault but criminal damaging or endangering, according to jail records.

ABC reported  that neighbors called about a domestic disturbance and they were told that the fight started while the couple was still in the car driving home.  The charge of damaging or endangering is not well known and here is the statutory provision:

2909.06 Criminal damaging or endangering.

(A) No person shall cause, or create a substantial risk of physical harm to any property of another without the other person’s consent:

(1) Knowingly, by any means;

(2) Recklessly, by means of fire, explosion, flood, poison gas, poison, radioactive material, caustic or corrosive material, or other inherently dangerous agency or substance.

(B) Whoever violates this section is guilty of criminal damaging or endangering, a misdemeanor of the second degree. If a violation of this section creates a risk of physical harm to any person, criminal damaging or endangering is a misdemeanor of the first degree. If the property involved in a violation of this section is an aircraft, an aircraft engine, propeller, appliance, spare part, or any other equipment or implement used or intended to be used in the operation of an aircraft and if the violation creates a risk of physical harm to any person, criminal damaging or endangering is a felony of the fifth degree. If the property involved in a violation of this section is an aircraft, an aircraft engine, propeller, appliance, spare part, or any other equipment or implement used or intended to be used in the operation of an aircraft and if the violation creates a substantial risk of physical harm to any person or if the property involved in a violation of this section is an occupied aircraft, criminal damaging or endangering is a felony of the fourth degree.

Effective Date: 07-01-1996.

At first, I thought the charge was linked to driving home drunk, but the provision centers on “means of fire, explosion, flood, poison gas, poison, radioactive material, caustic or corrosive material, or other inherently dangerous agency or substance.”  Is the “caustic or corrosive material” the slice of pizza?

TV station WFMJ said the assault consisted of Evans “pushing a pizza into his girlfriend’s face.” The station identified the woman as Evans’ girlfriend.

I can understand charging James Cagney, but would the citric acid in the grapefruit meet the same definition for Mae Clarke?

 

 

20 thoughts on “Ohio Man Charged With Assault By Pizza On Girlfriend”

  1. The only way the the charge would make sense was if the pizza was fresh out of the oven, piping hot, and caused burns to her face. The grapefruit would have stung the recipient’s eyes excruciatingly.

    Otherwise, he was simply out of control, and the appropriate response is to break up with him and never speak to him again. Sorry, but hurling food in a girls’ face should be a deal breaker.

    There is a difference between criminal conduct, and relationship-ending conduct.

    1. I love old movies, but I never saw the one with Mae Clarke in the above clip. Again – relationship ending. I hope she kicked him to the curb, but it looks like this was the 40’s, so probably not. You don’t reward aggression with softness.

  2. How did that old song go…
    “When the sun hits your eye
    Like a big pizza pie
    That’s amore!”
    (with apologies to Dean Martin)
    So the present assault was merely an expression of love.

    1. Mary S – pizza is the food of the gods. It cannot be weaponized.

  4. What property of the girlfriend was substantially at risk? A person’s face is not property. This doesn’t make any sense to me.

  6. This is just pathetic, is this supposed to be funny? What is the legal relevance?

  7. On another blog I read that the girlfriends nickname is Big Mouth. She should have been able to take the piece of pizza or full pizza in one bite.

  9. By these standards, would a Three Stooges pie fight rate a PG-13 rating??

    1. Rakhuvar – a pie fight is clearly assault with a deadly weapon, you have the pie tin, don’t cha’ know. 😉

  10. He clearly needs to take this to a jury. Oh, and Cagney goes to jail for the grapefruit in Mae Clarke’s face. Although it probably worked as an astringent to take off the movie make-up, which was fairly heavy in those days.

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