Alleged pool stick attack not dismissed

A man who told police he was savagely beaten with a pool stick in his own home wants the court to forget the whole incident, asking Judge Larry Ross to dismiss charges against his alleged attackers.

‘I’d just like to drop the whole thing,’ said Thomas Roberts during his appearance Tuesday afternoon in General Sessions Court. ‘I want to dismiss the charges.’

The request came as his alleged attackers, Jerry O’dineal and Jeffery Roberts, were before the court for preliminary hearing. O’dineal, the man Thomas Roberts said beat him with a pool stick, is charged with aggravated assault which carries a three- to six-year sentence. Jeffery Roberts faces misdemeanor assaults charges.

According to arrest warrants, O’dineal came to the victim’s North Smith Street home and began an argument with him.

‘He started a fight with me, hitting me with a pool stick in the mouth,’ the victim swore in his warrant. ‘He then hit me in the back with his fist and then hit me on my leg with the pool stick.’

Thomas Roberts said he was bloodied during the assault which also allegedly saw Jeffery Roberts grab the victim and throw him to the ground.

After reading the warrants which included allegations of O’dineal wielding a pool stick, Judge Ross refused to drop the charges.

‘He gave me a job,’ Thomas Roberts interjected about one of the men hiring him for a job after the assault.

However, Ross said there was no way he would simply dismiss a charge with such serious allegations because the victim had a change of heart.

‘We aren’t in the habit of letting people take felony warrants out on somebody and then just coming up here and dropping it because they feel like it,’ Ross said, questioning why the victim would even consider dropping charges against a man accused of beating him in his own home.

Both men were bound to the grand jury on their respective charges.