A Masury man has been charged with felonious assault and criminal damaging following a neighbor spat August 2, Brookfield police said.
Police said they were called at 11:10 p.m. to 1346 Standard Ave., for a report of an assault. While police there, Meade and Melody Everson reported that Michael Zellefrow and his girlfriend, Emily Brown, had attacked the Eversons’ son, Brian K. White, and his girlfriend, Elizabeth Brick, knocking out Brick’s tooth.
Police now believe that Zellefrow was the victim, and White has been arrested.
Zellefrow, who lives next door to White, said he approached White after White had pulled into the driveway at 1340 Standard, where White lives, and Zellefrow told White to turn down his music, police said. White responded with a rant along the lines of he will do what he wants, police said.
White, 26, put his vehicle into reverse and tried to hit Zellefrow with it twice, police said.
Brick came out of the home and had words with Zellefrow and Brown, hitting Brown in the face and breaking Brown’s eyeglasses, police said.
Zellefrow went home to call 911 and White tried to kick in Zellefrow’s front door, police said.
Neighbors Elizabeth and Russell Mohney, who live in the same apartment building as Zellefrow, corroborated Zellefrow’s story, and said White smashed the rear windshield of Zellefrow’s car and threw a shoe through the window of the Mohneys’ screen door, police said. White also tried to call friends to help him in the attack, police said.
White told police that Zellefrow “came at him over an incident the other night when White called police on Zellefrow pertaining to suspicious activity,” police said.
Police released a 911 summary that said they were called to 1340 Standard on July 28 with a report that five or six subjects, possibly from 1346 Standard, had taken off from a shed behind the house. The caller did not want police to stop at her house out of fear of retaliation, police said.
Back to the Aug. 2 incident, White said Zellefrow chased him with a propane tank. Zellefrow told police he grabbed the tank only after White tried to hit him with the car, police said.
White said Zellefrow punched Brick in the face, which Zellefrow denied.
White was arrested that night, and arraigned by video Aug. 4 from the Trumbull County Jail by Trumbull County Eastern District Court Judge Marty Nosich. White did not enter a plea on the felonious assault charge, and pleaded no contest to two counts of criminal damaging. He faces a preliminary hearing Aug. 6.
UPDATE: White reached a plea deal on misdemeanor charges on Aug. 13 and was sentenced to 10 days in jail with credit for the 10 he had already served, a $250 fine, 1 year of probation and an order to have no contact with he victims.