TRUMBULL COUNTY Man who paid girls for acts gets jail

The defendant said he was just having a little fun.
By TIM YOVICH
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
GIRARD -- A 43-year-old Youngstown truck driver who paid four Liberty High School students for sexual favors has been sentenced to 30 days in jail.
Charles R. Slenker of Taft Avenue was also fined $100 Thursday and placed on probation for a year by municipal Judge Michael A. Bernard. He is also required to undergo a psychiatric evaluation.
"I'll lose my job," Slenker told the judge before being handcuffed and taken to the Trumbull County jail to serve his sentence.
Plea agreement
Slenker, who represented himself and was found guilty April 23 of procuring, a misdemeanor, had been offered a plea agreement that called for a $100 fine and probation.
Slenker, who lived in a Hubbard Township mobile home at the time of the activity, told Judge Bernard he didn't know why the girls approached him about engaging in sexual activity in 2003 at his residence.
"Maybe I'm a good-looking guy," he told the court.
When Judge Bernard found Slenker guilty, he had ordered him to undergo a psychiatric evaluation, which he didn't do.
Slenker said he didn't need the exam because there was no violence or deviant behavior involved. He told the judge he was "just having a little fun."
Slenker also said he didn't believe he should have to pay $200 for the evaluation, but would get it done if the court footed the bill.
"That isn't going to happen," Judge Bernard replied.
During the sentencing hearing, the judge overruled motions filed by Slenker to vacate the verdict and grant him a new trial.
Slenker argued that he didn't own the mobile home he had lived in, but the judge pointed out that Slenker told police he did own it. Even if he didn't own it, the judge added, Slenker was responsible for the use of his premises.
Slenker also asserted that he didn't have time to consider the plea offer.
Prosecutor Robert Johnson told Judge Bernard that Slenker was making excuses for himself and was showing disrespect for the court. He was offered the agreement twice.
"Now he has to live with the choices he has made," Johnson asserted.
Sexual activity
The activity included Slenker's paying $20 to $120 to touch the girls' breasts. One stripped, and they fondled themselves. He also paid one of the girls for four of her panties.
The girls were charged with prostitution, but pleaded guilty to a lesser offense in Trumbull County Family Court.
Slenker had argued that he wasn't doing anything different from activities in strip clubs.
yovich@vindy.com