Man arrested on charges of assault, attempted rape

His accuser, a Kent woman, met him at a West Virginia gaming resort.
BOARDMAN -- A Glenwood Avenue man will return to court early next year, accused of assaulting a Kent woman.
Jamal Almasandeh, 33, was arrested Thursday at his apartment by township detectives and the Violent Crimes Task Force on warrants accusing him of attempted rape and assault. He was being held Friday in the Mahoning County Justice Center.
A preliminary hearing on the attempted rape charge, a felony, was set for Jan. 3 in Mahoning County Area Court.
Almasandeh pleaded innocent in county court Thursday evening to the misdemeanor assault charge and a pretrial on that charge also was set for Jan. 3.
Police report
The 23-year-old Kent woman told police that she met Almasandeh last weekend at Mountaineer Race Track and Casino in Chester, W.Va. The two talked for about 30 minutes, and when the casino closed at 4 a.m. Sunday, he walked her to her car and asked her to take him home so that they could talk more, a police report said.
They drove first to Youngstown, looking for Almasandeh's car, and then into the township. The woman told police that at one point, he unzipped his pants and pushed her hand onto him. The man also pulled her head toward his groin area, the woman told police, but she pulled away.
She drove him to his apartment building where he tried to put his hand up her skirt and down her shirt and asked her to come into his apartment.
She declined, saying she just wanted to go home. The two struggled, with the woman pulling his hair and biting him in an attempt to get him off of her, according to the report. She suffered a swollen lip and eye and had scratches.