CLEVELAND, Ohio -- A Cuyahoga County grand jury returned an indictment against a poll worker accused of pulling out a gun and threatening to kill another worker at a polling station inside a West Side elementary school.

Allen Bethea, 46, pleaded not guilty to charges of carrying concealed weapons, possession of a deadly weapon or deadly ordinance in a school safety zone, and aggravated menacing Friday morning in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court, according to court records.

A public defender was assigned to represent him. He is due back in court April 1.

Witnesses said about 50 voters were in the polling station when Bethea pulled a .380 pistol out of his backpack and said, "Somebody's going to die," after an argument with fellow poll workers inside the Louisa May Alcott Elementary School in the 10000 block of Baltic Road on March 15.

Bethea left the school. Police took him into custody a short time later at West 107th Street and Detroit Avenue.

The elections board does not conduct criminal background checks on poll workers, but workers are asked if they have been convicted of a felony on an application. That did not apply to Bethea who pleaded guilty to misdemeanor sexual imposition in 2002.

Charges of rape, sexual battery and kidnapping with a sexual motive were dismissed as part of a plea deal, court records say. Bethea was given a 90-day suspended sentence.

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