STEUBENVILLE — A South Carolina man is under indictment in Jefferson County for allegedly disrupting police dispatchers with two months of non-stop crank calls.
A total of seven indictments were returned by the grand jury Wednesday, one of them a misdemeanor that’s been kicked back to a lower court.
The grand jury returned seven true bills Wednesday, including a felony indictment charging charging Samuel Vance Hall, Carlisle, S.C., with 21 counts of disrupting public service.
Beginning Nov. 11 and continuing through Jan. 10, authorities allege Hall, 50, called dispatchers and public officials, harassing and threatening them, Prosecutor Jane Hanlin said. Hall allegedly called, “sometimes between 100 and 500 (times) a day, making it impossible for dispatchers to dispatch,” she said.
Hall allegedly “tied up all the lines, harassing and disparaging dispatchers and officers, and was threatening them,” Hanlin said. “They can’t leave but also, they can’t dispatch properly.”
Police believe Hall used a device that allowed him to automatically call back when a call terminated. “As he hung up it would call back,” she said.
Others indicted were:
— Richard Cleve Graham, 47, 444 County Road 20, Dillonvale, two counts of domestic violence, two counts of burglary, intimidating a witness and felonious assault, all felonies, and a misdemeanor count of obstructing official business Jan. 2.
The indictment charges Graham with assaulting a woman Sept. 30 and again on Dec. 27, and with breaking into her house three times — in October, November and December — despite court orders barring him from contact with the alleged victim.
Authorities allege Graham “beat her badly” in December, “smashing her face into a bathtub.” The indictment also charges Graham with breaking into the woman’s home and with trying to intimidate a victim, witness or attorney.
His alleged victim had told sheriff’s deputies Graham beat her and locked her in the bathroom, returning a short time later to threaten her life. She’d said she screamed for help and, when he returned, struck him in the head with a master lock, causing him to flee. Deputies said when they found Graham hiding in the trunk of a car, he told them the woman had assaulted him because she wanted his debit card and he panicked and hid in the trunk.
Graham allegedly had prior convictions for domestic violence — in Wintersville county court in 2015 and in Harrison County in 2019.
— Louis D. Jordan, 43, Westerville, OH, possession of cocaine, possession of fentanyl and aggravated possession of methamphetamine, each with major drug offender and forfeiture specifications, as well as weapons under disability, all felonies.
Authorities allegedly found more than 100 grams of cocaine, between 50 and 100 grams of fentanyl and two guns in a S. 4th Street property belonging to Jordan on Dec. 2. At the time, they’d reported the contraband was “laid out on tables with pricing (and) a ledger book of what the stuff was.”
Hanlin said Jordan was charged with the weapons violation because of a prior conviction for possessing drugs. In addition to charging him as a major drug offender, authorities are also seeking forfeiture of $13,402 in cash seized during the raid.
— Jesse James III, 59, 402 Spring Ave., Steubenville, arson.
James allegedly set fire to the Spring Avenue property where he’d been staying Dec. 11 in Steubenville.
Witnesses had told police they saw James using a flag pole to break the glass out of the side door of the home. Neighbors also had reported hearing glass breaking and told police they saw James kicking the door.
— Jeffrey Allan Yingst, 761 Commercial St., Mingo Junction, domestic violence.
Authorities allege Yingst, 61, “came home drunk” and a neighbor watched him “beating and kicking” a member of his household. Yingst has four prior convictions for domestic violence — in 2000, 2004, 2005 and 2006, all in Steubenville Municipal Court, the grand jury noted.
— George Lewis Boyd, 47, 1333 Euclid Ave. Steubenville, trafficking cocaine and trafficking a fentanyl-related compound, Dec. 9 in Steubenville.
— A true bill also was returned against Ashanea Sharnay Marie Herrin, 711 Market St. Steubenville, misdemeanor assault. The charge against Herrin, 26, stems from an Oct. 20 bar fight at the American Legion in Steubenville’s North End.
Hanlin said the misdemeanor case will be returned to municipal court for hearing.
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