YOUNGSTOWN Rapist gets 7-year sentence for assault

The others involved in the case were sentenced in juvenile court.
By BOB JACKSON
VINDICATOR COURTHOUSE REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- An 18-year-old Point View Avenue man was sentenced to seven years in prison Tuesday for raping a teenage classmate with whom he was skipping school.
It was two years longer than the sentence recommended by prosecutors as part of a plea agreement, but Judge James C. Evans of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court said it still was a huge break. "You should look at your attorney as a miracle performer and tell him thanks," the judge told James Patterson.
Patterson pleaded guilty July 8 to one count of rape. As part of a plea agreement with the prosecutor's office, additional charges of attempted rape, kidnapping and gross sexual imposition were dismissed.
Assistant prosecutor Dawn Krueger said those charges were filed against Patterson in juvenile court, which is where the case originated because Patterson was a juvenile at the time. Once authorities investigated further, it was determined that the other charges were not warranted, she said. The victim agreed to the reduction in exchange for Patterson's guilty plea, Krueger said.
What happened
Krueger said Patterson, the victim and three or four other male youths skipped classes at The Rayen School in May 2002 and went to a house on Tod Lane, where one of the other youths lived. Patterson took the victim into an upstairs bedroom, locked the door and raped her, Krueger said.
"When he was finished, he went downstairs and told the others that they could have a turn at her," Krueger said.
She said the others went one at a time up to the bedroom. Although each of them engaged in some type of sexual conduct, none of them had intercourse with her, she said. Those cases were handled in juvenile court, where they received sentences ranging from one to four years in the Ohio Department of Youth Services. One co-defendant was placed on probation.
Patterson was bound over to common pleas court for trial as an adult because he was the only one who raped the girl and because he was the instigator.
"You were the ringleader," Judge Evans said to Patterson. "When you got done, you decided to just hand this young lady over to whoever else wanted her. We can't tolerate that."
He said the recommended sentence of five years was too short, and opted to tack on two more years.
Defense attorney Ronald Yarwood acknowledged that what Patterson did was heinous, but asked the judge to show him mercy because of his youth.
"He has endless possibilities," Yarwood said, pleading for the five-year sentence.
The victim's mother said her daughter has been traumatized and the family had to move away from the city because of the attack. The victim was a friend of some of the youths who assaulted her, but not of Patterson, Krueger said.
bjackson@vindy.com