Newly Uncovered Arrest Records: Democratic Congressional Candidate Slapped Man at MLB Game, Swallowed Crack in Front of Cops
Ohio Democrat Brian Poindexter is running for Congress with two old arrest files now in public view.
He is the party’s candidate in the 7th District against Rep. Max Miller, a Republican.
The Washington Free Beacon published police records and an eyewitness account this week.
The first file is dated Jan. 23, 1998, when Poindexter was 18.
Cleveland vice officers were watching a corner known for drug traffic at West 91st Street and Denison Avenue, according to the incident report.
They said they saw him wave at a passing car, then take “small objects from his coat pocket and put them into his mouth.”
An officer ordered him to spit. The report said he started to swallow instead.
The two men went to the ground. The officer recovered “a rock of suspected crack cocaine” near Poindexter’s mouth.
He was arrested for drug abuse.
The Washington Free Beacon said it is not clear whether prosecutors ever took the case to a conviction.
A Poindexter representative told the site, “Any implication that Brian has used hard drugs is false. Any suggestion otherwise is bulls***.”
The second case is dated Aug. 10, 2013, at a Cleveland Indians game.
Police pulled Poindexter, then 34, out of the ballpark and arrested him for assault after he allegedly slapped a stranger “for no known reason,” the outlet reported.
Bob Rzepka, who lives in the district, told the paper he had watched Poindexter swallow a whole dollar hot dog in one bite and walked over to joke about buying Poindexter another one.
Rzepka said Poindexter seemed drunk, took offense, and “smacked me right across the f***ing face.”
Officers standing nearby grabbed Poindexter and threw him out.
Rzepka said he declined to press charges. He and his son had to change seats after Poindexter yelled from outside the fence.
Rzepka called it an anger problem.
Poindexter is asking 7th District voters to send him to the House. Miller already holds the seat.
Old arrests are not the same thing as a rap sheet of convictions.
The 1998 report describes suspected crack. The campaign says he did not use hard drugs.
The 2013 slap is in police records and in the victim’s telling.
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