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By ED RUNYAN
Staff writer
CHAMPION -- An arrest warrant was issued earlier this month in Warren Municipal Court for Miguel A. Alvarez, 19, of Middlefield, on two counts of felonious assault and one count of felony strangulation for a Sept. 12 incident at a Champion park and campground in which a woman suffered a severe laceration.
The charges were filed Sept. 23, the same day an arrest warrant was issued. There is no indication in court or jail records that Alvarez is in custody.
A Champion police report states that officers were called to Willow Lake Park and Campground at 4 a.m. Sept. 12 for a disturbance and drove to the western end and found a car parked in the road with two women beside it and one on the ground. The officer had asked for the Champion Fire Department to respond.
One of the women told the officer that she had come to the facility to fight a woman, but when she arrived with others, about 30 people and several vehicles were there. When they stopped in their car, "members of the group assaulted them," the woman said.
The driver of the car was knocked unconscious, but she was conscious when the officer arrived. An officer spoke with the driver, who had a lot of blood on her pants near her knee.
Another woman there said that when they arrived, men attacked them, knocking the driver unconscious. They said they did not know the identity of the men. When Champion firefighters arrived, they cut off the lower part of her pant leg, revealing a two-inch stab wound above her knee, the report states. She was taken to St. Joseph Warren Hospital.
Trumbull County sheriff's deputies came to the scene and helped search the area, finding a folding knife on the ground.
Another woman was interviewed. She told Champion police she was assaulted by women and saw the driver being stabbed by Alvarez, who was one of two men assaulting the driver at the time.
A Champion police detective called several of the women to the police station to be interviewed again later Sept. 12. One woman said she saw Alvarez kicking the driver in the face while she was on the ground. Another man was "beating up" the driver, she said.
An officer obtained a nine-second video that showed the driver on the ground and a shirtless man wearing blue jeans who appeared to be Alvarez, and the person shooting the video saying "Miguel trippin'" as he was filming.
The man was seen kicking the driver in the face "in an up and down stomp motion," the report states. Then he appeared to strike her in the head/face four times with his fist. The video then shows two other fights, each apparently involving two women.
Another woman said she and the driver went to Willow Lake because of messages about a woman wanting to fight another woman. But when the driver pulled in and saw about 30 people, she started to back up, but people opened the car doors and "began attacking them."
The woman said she stayed in the car, but four or five men attacked the driver with a man named Miguel putting his arm around the driver's neck and choking and strangling her, the report states.
At one point, Alvarez picked the driver up with her feet dangling in the air as he strangled her, the woman told police. The officer also was told that a woman also was punching the driver while she was on the ground. One witness said the driver was unconscious for five to seven minutes.
When police spoke with the driver two days later, she said she drove to the campground and was trying to leave when she saw a large crowd. But the doors unlocked when she put the car in park and people attacked another woman in the car. She said a man with no shirt grabbed her and placed his hands around her neck and squeezed, putting her in a choke hold. She pulled out her folding knife to try to scare her attacker or attackers with it. She was released and put the knife back in her pocket. Then several men attacked her and she believes she lost consciousness, she said.
She said she thinks she felt someone reaching into her pocket and possibly taking her knife. She found the knife in the grass near her. She was being kicked and does not remember anything after that. She said she had two stab wounds, one near her knee and one on her inner thigh. Both required stitches.
The driver provided the officer with another video, this one showing the driver being held in a headlock by a man wearing no shirt. The driver reached into her waistband and removed a pocket knife. The driver appeared to bring the knife toward her waistband, and that is when the woman said she tried to put the knife away after everyone backed away.
The video then shows a woman fighting with the driver and the shirtless man assaulting the driver multiple times, with another man kicking the driver and the shirtless man kicking the driver in the head while she is on the ground, and then the driver goes limp. The officer showed her the folding knife recovered at the scene and she said it was hers. She identified Alvarez from a photo as the person who assaulted her multiple times and said her confidence he was the person who did it was seven or eight out of 10 sure it was him.
Another witness said she was 100% sure the person she picked out of a lineup, Alvarez, was the man she saw stabbing, choking and kicking the driver, the report states.