MAHONING COUNTY Jury clears defendant of rape charge

The judge said he believes Clark was guilty despite the jury's verdict.
By BOB JACKSON
VINDICATOR COURTHOUSE REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- There was so much more Judge R. Scott Krichbaum wanted to say to the handcuffed man standing before him, but he couldn't.
"I have to do the judicial thing and bite my tongue," the judge said.
Then he turned his face away from 46-year-old Charles Clark and told deputies to "please, get him out of here."
After three hours of deliberation Monday, jurors in Judge Krichbaum's courtroom in Mahoning County Common Plea Court acquitted Clark of raping a woman, intimidating her and her son, and violating a protection order.
The same eight-man, four-woman jury convicted Clark of one count of domestic violence.
Won't go to prison
The judge imposed the maximum sentence of 12 months in prison for domestic violence, but Clark won't have to serve a day in a state penitentiary. That's because he's already been locked up some 13 months in the county jail awaiting trial.
By law, that time must be applied as credit toward his prison sentence.
If Clark had been convicted of all counts, he could have faced up to 21 years in prison.
Judge Krichbaum said he is bound by law to honor the jury's verdict, but he doesn't agree with it.
"I think you committed" the crimes for which he was acquitted, the judge said to Clark. "I think your actions were so far over the top with this lady."
Defense attorney Martin E. Yavorcik said the victim's statements to police at the time of the offenses varied from her testimony during the trial.
"I think the jury saw that there was clearly reasonable doubt," Yavorcik said. "I think justice was served."
Clark was accused of sexually assaulting his former girlfriend at her Steel Street apartment in February 2003. The accuser testified last week that Clark punched her in the face and stomach, then raped her.
She said he accused her of being romantically involved with another man, which she denied. She said the assault stopped when Clark got up to answer his cellular phone.
The woman said Clark called her father some four months later and threatened to harm her and her 3-year-old son if she did not drop the rape charges.
Prosecutors said that violated terms of a protection order the accuser secured against Clark the day after the alleged assault.
Assistant Prosecutor Dawn Krueger said Clark was on probation for a previous charge of attempted gross sexual imposition when he was arrested on the rape-related charges.
She has filed a motion to either extend or revoke that probation, and that matter is pending before Judge James C. Evans.
If it is determined that Clark violated terms of his probation, Judge Evans could impose a 12-month prison sentence, Krueger said.
bjackson@vindy.com