Man: Link to Koliser delaying rape trial

A hearing to dismiss the charge based on a speedy trial violation is Jan. 6.
YOUNGSTOWN -- Forrest A. Rupp Jr. says he has no illusions about why there's been no rush to bring him to trial on a rape charge.
Rupp said it's because he was one of four men who helped Martin L. Koliser Jr. get out of town after shooting Youngstown Patrolman Michael T. Hartzell in April 2003. Koliser, found guilty of ambushing Hartzell, is on Death Row.
"I feel that I have sat here [in jail] this long solely because of my involvement in the Martin Koliser case," Rupp said in a letter to The Vindicator. "If the Mahoning County Prosecutor's Office had a case against me then why have they plainly denied me my right to a trial?"
Jailed since March
Prosecutor Paul J. Gains said his office does not control court dockets. Trials can be delayed when motions are filed or judges are involved in another trial, he said.
Gains said Rupp's involvement with the Koliser case has nothing to do with any delay. "Absolutely not," the prosecutor said.
Rupp served about 90 days of a three-year prison sentence for obstructing justice in the Koliser case. After his release in November 2003, Rupp was placed on three years' probation. He's also on probation until 2007 for an unrelated aggravated robbery conviction.
Interviewed at the Mahoning County jail, Rupp, 25, of Poland, said he did not sign a speedy trial waiver and has had his constitutional rights violated. Rupp has been in jail since March 25, held without bond on a probation violation based on the rape allegation.
A person who does not waive his right to speedy trial must come to trial within 270 days if not in jail. If in jail, the time limit shrinks to 90 days.
As of today, Rupp has been in jail 277 days.
Indicted in June
In March, a 22-year-old New Waterford woman told Rupp's parole officer and Austintown police that Rupp forced her to have sex with him in her car at an apartment complex, records show. He freely admits they had sex but says it was consensual.
Although Rupp was jailed in March, a Mahoning County grand jury didn't indict him on the rape charge until June 17, according to Vindicator files.
His Boardman lawyer, Thomas E. Zena, filed a motion to dismiss the rape charge on Sept. 29, the day of trial, based on a speedy trial violation. A hearing on the motion has been reset several times in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court and is now set for Jan. 6 with Judge Jack Durkin.
Gains declined to comment on Rupp's January hearing.
Zena said that, by the time Rupp was arraigned on the rape charge in late June, more than 90 days had passed since his formal arrest.
"The sole reason for the parole violation arrest in March was the alleged rape," Zena said. "I'm saying the day he was arrested was Day One" to begin calculating 90 days for speedy trial.
He blames the delay not on the court but in getting the case from police to a prosecutor to a grand jury.
Hearings canceled
The defense lawyer said he can understand his client's feeling that the delay is based on Rupp's involvement in the Koliser case. "I think he got some real extra attention because of Koliser," Zena said.
Rupp is on probation to common pleas Judge James C. Evans for both the robbery and obstruction convictions. Zena said he asked Judge Evans, who kept wanting to hold a probation violation hearing, to dismiss the case.
Zena said it would be a different matter, for speedy trial purposes, if the probation violation were based on a drug charge, for example. Then, the court would be dealing with two separate cases, but because the probation violation arrest was based on the rape allegation, it's all one case for purposes of speedy trial, he said.
Records show Judge Evans scheduled probation violation hearings in April, May, September, October and this month. The hearings didn't take place because Rupp had not been to trial yet on the rape charge, Zena said.
Andrea Dean, Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction spokesman in Columbus, said the Adult Parole Authority hold on Rupp, which keeps him in jail, remains in effect until his rape case is resolved.