State v. Alwan

2025 Ohio 1366
CourtOhio Court of Appeals
DecidedApril 17, 2025
Docket114168
StatusPublished

This text of 2025 Ohio 1366 (State v. Alwan) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Ohio Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Alwan, 2025 Ohio 1366 (Ohio Ct. App. 2025).

Opinion

[Cite as State v. Alwan, 2025-Ohio-1366.]

COURT OF APPEALS OF OHIO

EIGHTH APPELLATE DISTRICT COUNTY OF CUYAHOGA

STATE OF OHIO, : No. 114168 Plaintiff-Appellee, :

v. :

HASSAN ALWAN :

Defendant-Appellant. :

JOURNAL ENTRY AND OPINION

JUDGMENT: AFFIRMED RELEASED AND JOURNALIZED: April 17, 2025

Criminal Appeal from the Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas Case No. CR-24-688486-A

Appearances:

Michael C. O’Malley, Cuyahoga County Prosecuting Attorney, Kyle Dillon and Courtney Kirven, Assistant Prosecuting Attorneys, for appellee.

Cullen Sweeney, Cuyahoga County Public Defender, and Michael V. Wilhelm, Assistant Public Defender, for appellant.

WILLIAM A. KLATT, J.:

Defendant-appellant Hassan Alwan (“Alwan”) appeals from his

conviction for felonious assault. For the following reasons, we affirm. Factual and Procedural History

On April 18, 2023, in Cuyahoga C.P. No. CR-22-676476-A, a

Cuyahoga County Grand Jury indicted Alwan on one count of felonious assault in

violation of R.C. 2903.11(A)(1), a felony of the second degree. This charge arose from

an incident that took place on September 29, 2022. That case was set for a jury trial

on January 22, 2024. Because the complaining witness was unavailable for the

scheduled trial, the State filed a motion to continue. Alwan opposed this motion,

and on the scheduled trial date, the court denied the State’s motion. The State

moved to dismiss the case without prejudice, the trial court granted this motion, and

the case was dismissed without prejudice.

On February 5, 2024, in Cuyahoga C.P. No. CR-24-688486, Alwan

was reindicted in the underlying case. This case proceeded to a jury trial on April

17, 2024.

The incident at issue in this case took place at the Soccer Sportsplex

in North Olmsted, Ohio, on September 28, 2022. That day, two teams were playing

an adult recreational soccer game.

The State called two witnesses at trial. The first witness, victim

Federico Chalupa (“Chalupa”), testified that he was 42 years old and had been

playing soccer since childhood. Chalupa testified that on the date of the incident, he

was playing in a game for a recreational team for which he had played for five to ten

years. Chalupa testified that the game was “a little chippy” and at the time of the

incident, there were “probably no more than 10 minutes left in the game” and Chalupa’s team was losing by a score of around “eight to one.” Chalupa described

the specific altercation as follows:

I was a forward and I was trying to press the defense to keep the ball in the zone, and I arrived there a little late.

I made contact with [Alwan], and turned around upfield to — because he had kicked it upfield to continue play. And as — after I turned around, I felt a kick on my backside, and so I turn around and pushed [Alwan] to be, like — you know, I said “Why did you just kick me?”

And then next thing I know, I have to defend myself. I’m getting punched in the face.

I tried to — I put my hand up to try to block, but I’m not a fighter, and I was slow and it went around my arm there and it hit me in the face. And I kind of took a step towards him to – to kind of defend myself at that point. Then I took a step back, because he made this weird motion; he turned around. And the next thing I know, I’m getting kicked in the head.

Chalupa testified that the date of the incident was the first time that

his team had played Alwan’s team, and he had never met Alwan prior to this game.

Chalupa identified Alwan at trial. Chalupa testified that after the incident, he drove

himself to the hospital and then to a different location with an emergency room. At

the ER, the laceration on Chalupa’s forehead was treated with five stitches. Chalupa

testified that ER personnel asked him if he wanted a head scan, and he declined.

Chalupa testified that the morning after the incident, he called the

police to see if he could make a report about the incident. The following day, he went

to the station and filed a police report. The State introduced several photographs of

Chalupa’s injury that were taken when he filed the police report. According to Chalupa, in the days following the incident, he

experienced headaches, nausea, and was having trouble sleeping. He went on a

previously scheduled trip out of state. Upon returning, he made a doctor’s

appointment. Chalupa testified that his doctor was concerned with his lack of sleep

and headaches and prescribed an antidepressant. Chalupa was unsatisfied with this

solution and sought a second opinion from the neurology department at the

Cleveland Clinic, where he was diagnosed with post-concussion syndrome. Chalupa

testified that he underwent an MRI and began cognitive behavioral therapy and

acupuncture.

Chalupa testified that prior to the incident at issue in this case, he had

suffered five to seven concussions, most sustained while playing soccer. Chalupa

had his first concussion at the age of ten, which resulted in getting “knocked out for

10 seconds.” He also experienced a seizure after a head-to-head collision while

playing soccer that “was pretty bad.” For these previous concussions, Chalupa

treated them by getting some rest and taking Tylenol. According to Chalupa, the

incident in this case was the first time that he had any lingering side effects from a

concussion.

On cross-examination, Chalupa testified that he filed a civil suit

against Alwan for money damages.

Officer Joseph Ganelli (“Ganelli”) also testified at trial. Ganelli

testified that he was a police officer in North Olmsted and his role within the

department was a field training officer (“FTO”). Ganelli explained that in his role as an FTO, he was training a new officer in September 2022, when Chalupa came into

the police department to make a report. Ganelli testified that on October 7, 2022,

he and another officer went to Alwan’s house to speak with him about the incident.

Alwan subsequently went into the police station and filled out a written statement

about the incident.

Alwan’s witness statement described the incident, stating that Alwan

got hit on his injured foot and shoved to the ground; Alwan subsequently got up and

tripped the other player — Chalupa — out of frustration. Alwan’s statement asserts

that Chalupa then charged at Alwan and attempted to hit him, so Alwan hit Chalupa;

Chalupa again charged at Alwan, so Alwan performed a spinning kick on Chalupa.

Ganelli testified that because Chalupa’s and Alwan’s respective

versions of events contradicted each other, he and another officer followed up by

visiting the Soccer Sportsplex and obtaining security footage of the incident. Ganelli

testified that after viewing footage of the incident, he concluded that Alwan’s version

of events differed slightly from what was captured on video; specifically, Alwan did

not describe kicking Chalupa in his rear end. On cross-examination, Ganelli

acknowledged that while Alwan did not describe himself kicking Chalupa in his

witness statement, he did state that he tripped Chalupa, and upon rewatching the

video of the incident, Ganelli stated that he disagreed with the characterization of

the contact but acknowledged that it was mentioned in Alwan’s witness statement. The State played two videos of the incident at trial. Both videos were

security footage from the Soccer Sportsplex and showed the incident from two

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Bluebook (online)
2025 Ohio 1366, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-alwan-ohioctapp-2025.