State v. Mutter (Slip Opinion)

I. Introduction

{¶ 1} In these discretionary appeals, which we consolidated for oral argument and now consolidate for decision, we consider whether the Fourth District Court of Appeals erred in reversing the trial court’s decision to grant the motions of appellants, Melvin Mutter and Buddy Mutter (“the Mutters”), to dismiss an indictment that charged them with ethnic intimidation. The Mutters filed their motions to dismiss because they had already been convicted in Portsmouth Municipal Court for aggravated menacing, which is the predicate offense for the charges of ethnic intimidation that…