On Oct. 15, 2026, Ronnie Legg, 60, pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct, a minor misdemeanor.
Franklin County Common Pleas Judge Kim Brown sentenced Legg to 71 days in jail with credit for time served.
This story first published on Jan. 21, 2025.
Columbus man charged with ethnic intimidation after alleged threat, racial slurs
A Far West Side man hurled racial slurs while threatening a man and two children with a pistol while using racial slurs, according to Franklin County Court records.
A grand jury Tuesday handed up charges against Ronnie Legg, 59, of the Far West Side. The indictment charges him with ethnic intimidation, a fifth-degree felony, having weapons under disability, a third-degree felony and aggravated menacing, a first-degree misdemeanor.
The charges stem from an incident that occurred around 8:50 p.m. Dec. 28.
The 35-year-old victim told police that he was leaving a relative's house in the 100 block of Lechner Avenue in the Hilltop with his two daughters and decided to cut through a backyard and alley to get home, court records say.
Legg confronted the man and his daughters in the alley with a pistol and threatened to kill them, according to court records.
Legg also said he would kill "all" the Black people — referring to them using a derogatory term — and Hispanic people — again using a racial slur.
The victim told officers he believed Legg's threat and was scared of what he might do, so he grabbed his children and kept walking, court records say.
Legg was held on a $2,000 bond during his first court hearing in December. At a pretrial hearing on Jan. 13, Municipal Court Judge Zach Gwin released Legg on his own recognizance but ordered him to wear a GPS ankle monitor and be on house arrest.
Ethnic intimidation is defined in the Ohio Revised Code as harassing or threatening someone, or damaging property, because of the "race, color, religion or national origin of another person or group of persons."
Legg, who has previous convictions related to domestic violence, remains at large, but prosecutors have requested a warrant for his arrest.
bbruner@gannett.com
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Columbus man sentenced for threatening family with gun, slurs
