25 counts of rape

25 counts of rape
YOUNGSTOWN -- A 40-year-old East Side man pleaded innocent to 25 counts of rape.
Deputy sheriffs arrested William O'Neill Jr. of Himrod Avenue, who had been secretly indicted, at his home at about 10:30 a.m. Tuesday.
Mahoning County Common Pleas Judge Robert Lisotto ordered a $500,000 bond, and O'Neill is being held in the Mahoning County Jail.
Deena Calabrese, an assistant county prosecutor, said the victim is a female relative, and that O'Neill would face life imprisonment if convicted on each of the counts.
Calabrese had sought a $1 million bond.
The crimes are alleged to have occurred in Warren and Youngstown over the last 21/2 years.
Arrested after chase
YOUNGSTOWN -- A 30-year-old East Side man was arrested after leading city police on a high-speed chase through the East Side, ending when the suspect and a police officer crashed their vehicles, police reports show.
No one was injured in the 10 p.m. Tuesday chase.
Officers in two cruisers first saw the red Chevrolet S-10 pickup truck near Stewart Avenue and McGuffey Road. The driver ran a red light and a stop sign and almost hit a cruiser before crashing into a fence on a vacant lot on Stewart as he attempted to turn onto Magnolia Avenue. He then fled on foot, and five police officers caught him in a Stewart yard
Five cruisers became involved in the chase, and one ran off the road at McGuffey and Bennington Avenue.
Police said they found a crack pipe in the pickup, and the driver, of Rigby Street, was charged with driving under suspension, resisting arrest, failure to comply and drug abuse paraphernalia.
Man still missing
YOUNGSTOWN -- City police continued to search today for an 81-year-old Alzheimer's patient who walked out of his East Side home at about 4 p.m. Tuesday.
Pedro Bonilla Sr. walked out the front door of the Clinton Avenue home.
Reports describe him as Hispanic, with gray hair and brown eyes. He is 5 feet 8 inches tall and weighs 145 pounds. He was wearing glasses, brown pants, a beige shirt, a dark blue coat and a brown hat.
Drain cleaner bomb
YOUNGSTOWN -- City police and arson investigators confiscated a suspected drain cleaner bomb from the toolbox of a 36-year-old employee at the Mahoning County Engineer's office at 940 Bears Den Road.
Officers were called Tuesday by a safety administrator at the office, who said a supervisor had given him a pop bottle containing aluminum balls and a liquid.
One employee said he had seen the 36-year-old man shake a plastic bottle containing the aluminum balls and place it on a battery in a shop area last Friday before running into an office area.
A mechanic had moved the bottle to the toolbox.
No arrest was made.
Changes to parking lot
YOUNGSTOWN -- The property committee of the city's downtown redevelopment agency, the Youngstown Central Area Community Improvement Corp., eliminated daily parking at the CIC-owned lot next to Powers Auditorium. It's now all monthly parking at $35 per month.
CIC loses about $525 a month because there is little daily parking and revenue but a lot attendant must be paid.
The new monthly lot will be monitored hourly.
Also, empty parking spaces in the all-monthly Higbee lot will be filled by adding daily parking.
Tax renewal opposition
POLAND -- The Democrats of the 17th District, a Mahoning Valley political club, voted 18-8 to oppose Mahoning County's renewal of a 0.5 percent sales tax because it is on the May primary, when fewer people vote compared with the November general election, which in the county traditionally gets two to three times the voters.
Free food, clothing
YOUNGSTOWN -- A food and clothing distribution will be at Heart Reach Ministries, 787 Wick Ave., from noon to 8:30 p.m. Thursday and Friday. Services are at 7 p.m. each day. The event is a joint effort by The Jericho Project, In Spirit and In Truth Fellowship, Lesea Feed the Hungry Ministries and Heart Reach Ministries.