TRUMBULL COUNTY N.C. man arrested locally on rape charges

The defendant worked at a university in South Carolina.
By PEGGY SINKOVICH
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
WARREN -- A 58-year-old retired English professor is being held under $500,000 bond after pleading innocent this morning to five charges of rape and eight counts of gross sexual imposition.
Edward W. Clark of Madison Avenue, Asheville, N.C., was arrested Saturday while visiting friends at a home in Cortland, Cortland police said.
Clark worked at Winthrop University in Rock Hill, S.C., authorities said. Winthrop is a small liberal arts school founded in 1886.
He was held without bond in the Trumbull County jail pending another court appearance Thursday.
Secretly indicted: Detective Latrese Morgan of the Trumbull County Sheriff's Department said Clark was secretly indicted last week. The identity of those indicted secretly is not made public until the person is arrested.
Morgan said Clark is accused of sexual contact with a 9-year-old female he knows. The victim lives in Cortland, Morgan said.
"He would come up to visit from time to time," Morgan said.
She noted the crimes were alleged to have occurred in Trumbull County in the past year.
"We were very lucky to have help from the North Carolina State Bureau of Criminal Investigation and Asheville Police Department," Morgan said. She noted that authorities there searched Clark's Asheville residence.
A computer and computer-related equipment were among the items taken from the home.
sinkovich@vindy.com