LISBON, Ohio — A 20-year-old Ohio man pulled a courtroom Houdini act that lasted about 30 seconds, and ended with two deputies sporting broken bones.
Timothy J. Reaggle of Wellsville had just been handed a year in prison Monday afternoon when he snapped his front-cuffed restraints in the hallway of the Columbiana County Courthouse, spun around, and cold-cocked the bailiff escorting him.
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Security video that later exploded online shows Reaggle, still in his orange jail jumpsuit — wrenching the metal cuffs apart like they were costume jewelry. He then throat-punched security bailiff Keith Thorn, knocking the veteran officer (and Wellsville village councilman) to the floor. Without breaking stride, Reaggle plowed through a second bailiff, Steve Boyd, and sprinted for the stairs.
“I’ve never seen anything like that in 35 years of practicing law,” attorney Larry Stacey II told local reporters after watching the melee from the hallway. “He turns around and cold-cocked him.”
Reaggle bolted down two flights of stairs with Deputy Nick Rusyn in hot pursuit. At the bottom, he collided with Deputy Coltan Vollnogle and Detective Jesse Smith before being tased just steps from the courthouse’s front doors. He never made it outside.
Both injured bailiffs were treated at a hospital and released. Sheriff Brian McLaughlin said they suffered broken bones. Thorn was wheeled out holding a paper towel to a bloody face. “I think my staff did an excellent job,” the sheriff said. “The prisoner never made it outside.”
The whole circus started minutes earlier in Judge Scott Washam’s courtroom. Reaggle had pleaded guilty in July to reduced charges from a Valentine’s Day 2025 brawl in St. Clair Township: he allegedly head-butted a woman, tackled a man outside the house, and held a knife to another man’s throat before fleeing police. The prosecutor wanted 15 months. The judge gave him 12.
As Thorn cuffed him in court, Reaggle muttered, “This is fing bulls.” The judge heard it, put him back on the record, and still stuck with the year. Reaggle was crying as he left the courtroom. Then he hulked out.
Witness Leland Monte, waiting in the hallway for an unrelated hearing, said he watched Reaggle fidgeting with the cuffs before they popped. “Just a crazy situation. I was really concerned for the officer.” Monte and his father jumped in to help the downed deputy.
Reaggle, who turns 21 this week, now faces extra felony counts of assaulting police officers, escape, and resisting arrest, on top of the year he already earned. The Houdini routine just added time.
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