An apparent road rage incident on a local interstate led to charges being filed against an off-duty Columbus police officer, NBC 4's Duarte Geraldino reported on November 11.

The incident occurred at 9:50 a.m. along Interstate 270 North at Westerville Road. Police told NBC 4 that Kristopher Montgomery, 25, of Newark, and off-duty Officer Mark Nelson, 33, of Johnstown, had a dispute while driving.

As the drivers pulled over to the side of the road, investigators said Nelson armed himself with a metal flashlight. The two then started to fight.

Nearby construction workers said they were stunned by what they saw, Geraldino reported.

"We just turned around and there were two guys between the cars arguing," witness Dave Brown said. "One had the other one on the ground beating him, and the other guy had something in his hand, like a club or something."

Investigators said Nelson used the flashlight to hit Montgomery several times in the head, causing a severe laceration.

"The big guy got the little guy down on the ground and started hitting him in the head," another witness told NBC 4. "We saw his head bouncing off the blacktop."

Witnesses said the fight lasted for about five minutes before passers-by stopped the men.

By the time uniformed officers arrived at the scene, the off-duty officer and the second man were bloody, Geraldino reported.

Montgomery was transported to a local hospital, where he was treated and released.

Nelson was charged with felonious assault. He was being held Thursday night at the Franklin County Jail.

OFCC will continue to follow this case, as well as the case of the City of Columbus vs Brinkley, Tressa, in which a Franklin Co. sheriff's deputy has been charged with aggravated-menacing charge, after aiming a gun at a cab driver while off duty last May.

November 10, 2004
Cleveland Free Times

edited to topic

PUT THAT IN YOUR QUIXOTIC PIPE

I am writing now for two reasons.

First, I'm a procrastinator and kept forgetting.

Second, I was awaiting the last of three events to take place.

Those three events are the passage of concealed carry in Ohio, the expiration of the sham “assault weapons” ban, and finally the reelection of George Bush.

You not only took an editorial stand regarding the first two, you gave the supporters of oppressive gun controls a free platform from which to preach their authoritarianism, and with nary a dissenting voice. Not to put too fine a point on it, you were handed your collective heads. Concealed carry passed in Ohio and is going strong. In the coming year, there will doubtless be successful efforts to fix the nonsensical rules regarding carry in automobiles. Forcing 110-pound women to fistfight with 210-pound rapists, and unarmed gays to be bashed by thugs with bats are family values only in the Bin Laden family.

The so-called “assault weapon” ban expired, and clearly much to your chagrin, the gutters aren't heaped with corpses. But then facts, logic and reason were never the province of gun control advocates, many of whom use the techniques and occasionally the idiom of the Holocaust denial movement. At the Berea gun show, there was table after table of semi-automatic rifles and large-capacity magazines. Olmsted Township has yet to take on the character of Fallujah. Your disappointment is palpable.

And that finally brings us to the Democratic debacle of last Tuesday. None of Kerry's supporters seemed to really want him. They just wanted Bush less. Unfortunately for you, lies, threats, and fawning appeals to those who despise this nation availed you little. And what have you learned from this trek down a trail of tears? Nothing.

Kerry tried to obfuscate his decades of support for oppressive gun controls by pretending to hunt and violating game laws in the process.

The Free Times has well and truly won the trifecta of political failure. You're 100 percent when it comes to backing losers.

Christopher C. Morton
Rocky River