EVANS CITY — District Judge Amy Marcinkiewicz heard Wednesday, Oct. 15, of a dispute over intellectual property that led an Ohio man to threaten his brother, a Jackson Township resident.

Martin Mitchell, 42, an Ohio resident residing in Corry, represented himself in the preliminary hearing, asking questions of his brother that often veered away from the criminal charges.

Martin Mitchell was charged with felony disclosing intercepted communications and one misdemeanor count each of terroristic threats and harassment after police were alerted to communications between him and his brother, Brandon Mitchell. Marcinkiewicz held all charges for court.

The communications discussed were text messages and phone calls between the two brothers sent from Oct. 4 to 6. Brandon Mitchell testified calls came over the span of four days following the first threatening text. He said the messages targeted both him and his wife.

“I am not a threat to Brandon Mitchell or his wife,” Martin Mitchell said.

Police said Brandon Mitchell filed a protection from abuse order against his brother on Oct. 6 in Erie County and put his family in a hotel for four nights.

On that same day, Martin Mitchell made a Facebook post that included audio of a phone conversation the previous day between the brothers where Martin Mitchell threatened Brandon Mitchell. Brandon Mitchell said he was not aware the phone conversation was being recorded at the time.

The video with the audio snippet from the phone call was then posted to Martin Mitchell’s Facebook page and shared to 16 Facebook groups with more than 1.25 million combined members, police said.

Martin Mitchell admitted to assistant district attorney David Beichner that he recorded and posted the phone conversation. He said he pushed a button to record a call and it told both parties the call was recorded. Martin Mitchell argued he had implied consent from his brother to record the call since he did not dispute it being recorded after hearing the message.

Brandon Mitchell testified there was no announcement the call was being recorded.

Brandon Mitchell, a regional general manager for TETRA Technologies, said Martin Mitchell worked for him for about two and a half years prior to the incident. Martin Mitchell alleges that after leaving the company in April, he filed a provisional patent for AI technology called the VANTA system.

Martin Mitchell alleges he shared the invention with Brandon Mitchell and a few mutual friends in May before he discovered a “coordinated effort to slander and defame” him.

He alleges the group is attempting to stop him from filing a follow-up patent after the one-year window for the provisional patent expires so they can patent the technology.

Martin Mitchell is being held in Butler County Prison on a $75,000 bail. His formal arraignment is scheduled at 1 p.m. Dec. 2 in Butler County Common Pleas Courtroom 5.