Wooster man pleads guilty to abduction, domestic violence

WOOSTER — At the conclusion of the trial of a Wooster man charged with several felonies related to a February domestic violence incident, the man took a plea deal that reduced his most serious charge.

Timothy Lu, 27, of the 400 block of West Larwill Street, was originally charged with kidnapping, a first-degree felony; felonious assault, a second-degree felony; disrupting public service, a fourth-degree felony; and domestic violence, a first-degree misdemeanor. At the end of Lu’s trial before Judge Mark K. Wiest on Monday, Lu took a plea agreement that reduced the kidnapping charge to abduction, a third-degree felony.

Lu pleaded guilty to that abduction charge and the domestic violence charge. As part of the plea agreement, the prosecutor’s office dropped the disrupting public service charge. Wiest had already dismissed the felonious assault charge.

The charges stemmed from an incident in which Lu repeatedly hit his then-girlfriend in the early morning hours of Feb. 22 at their apartment in the 800 block of Quinby Avenue. During her testimony, Lu’s ex-girlfriend said that, after a night out, Lu hit her with an open hand multiple times in the head and back. Lu also verbally abused her, tried to light her mattress on fire and choked her, the woman said.

“I just wanted to get him off of me. And I didn’t know what I did wrong. And I just wanted to get out,” the woman said in her testimony. “... I begged to leave. I tried to leave. And he dragged me up the stairs.”

Lu apologized to the woman via text message, she said, and she did not originally want to press charges against him. But after her mother took her to Wooster Community Hospital for treatment the following evening, the woman did file a report with the Wooster Police Department.

Wiest ordered a pre-sentence investigation, including a victim impact statement, and said Lu will be sentenced at a later date. The maximum penalty for the abduction conviction is three years in prison. The domestic violence conviction carries a maximum penalty of six months in jail and/?or a $1,000 fine, Wiest said.

Wiest continued Lu’s bond, which was set at 10 percent of $10,000 and stipulated that he not contact the victim. Lu has been out on bond since April 24.

Reporter Jack Rooney can be reached at 330-287-1645 or jrooney@the-daily-record.com. He is on Twitter at twitter.com/?RooneyReports.

CREDIT: JACK ROONEY