Man is acquitted of raping child

Jurors didn't believe the little girl's testimony.
By BOB JACKSON
VINDICATOR COURTHOUSE REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Richard Ronnel Moore and Karen Jones have one thing in mind.
"We're going to get married," Jones said Friday. "We're going to move on."
They can do that now that Moore has been acquitted of a rape charge, for which he had been on trial in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court. A jury found him innocent Friday. If he had been convicted, he would have been sentenced to prison for the rest of his life without chance of parole. & uml;
Before the trial, prosecutors offered Moore a plea bargain in which he would have served only six years. However, he refused it, saying he was innocent.
"Both of us believed from day one that he did nothing wrong to this child," said Atty. Michael J. Rich, who along with Atty. Miriam M. Ocasio defended Moore.
When Judge James C. Evans read the jury's verdict, Moore's shoulders slumped with relief. Rich and Ocasio, who were standing on either side of him, put their arms around him and patted his shoulders.
The accusation
Moore, 26, of East Judson Avenue, was accused of sexually assaulting a 6-year-old girl, to whom he is related, at his home in July 2003. The girl, now 7, testified this week that Moore kicked open a bedroom door, placed his hand over her mouth and assaulted her.
She said Moore threatened to kill the girl's mother if she told anyone about the assault.
"I believe her mother coerced her into saying those things," Jones said, noting that the victim's mother and Moore had been in a relationship in the past.
Rich and Ocasio said jurors told them afterward that they, like Jones, felt the girl had been prompted by her mother.
"They just thought this girl was afraid of her mother and that's why she did it," Rich said.
The girl's mother was in the courtroom for the verdict and left immediately afterward.
Rich and Ocasio said the jury also felt the Youngstown Police Department and the county Children Services Board were lax in their investigations of the case.
Assistant prosecutor Dawn Krueger said she was very disappointed at the verdict.
bjackson@vindy.com