MAHONING COUNTY Teen can't identify rapist, but DNA points to suspect

The results of DNA testing were presented in the trial.
YOUNGSTOWN -- The victim in the rape trial of Eddie L. Bandy said she couldn't identify her attacker, but a forensic scientist said tests she performed did include Bandy in the class of people who might have committed the crime.
Bandy, 39, of West Chalmers Avenue, is accused of raping a 14-year-old South Side girl as she walked through a park in October 2000. He is on trial in the courtroom of Judge R. Scott Krichbaum of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court.
Testimony began Wednesday and continues today.
Bandy has been in the county jail without bond since September 2001 awaiting his trial, which has been continued numerous times for a variety of reasons. He faces a maximum prison term of 10 years, if convicted.
Assault
The victim, now 18, told Dawn Krueger, an assistant county prosecutor, she cut through the park off Belleview Avenue coming from school that fall day.
She said a black man about 5 feet 9 inches tall and clean-shaven started talking to her. He identified himself as Ramon, and asked the girl if he could kiss her.
She said no. The man then grabbed her, pushed her down, hit her several times in the face, pulled down her pants and raped her. She said she screamed and cried for help several times. Her attacker, she said, threatened to kill her.
The victim told Krueger that after the attack the man walked away and she went home. She told her mother what happened, and they called Youngstown police.
The victim was taken to a hospital and examined. A rape kit was used to collect evidence from her clothing and private areas.
Under cross-examination by defense lawyer John B. Juhasz, the victim acknowledged she couldn't identify her attacker from a photo array given to her by the police.
Lynn Bolin, a forensic scientist from the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation, performed DNA tests from the rape kit.
She told Tim Franken, an assistant county prosecutor also trying the state's case, that the DNA taken from another suspect eliminated him from the class of people who may have committed the attack.
She then ran the test results on other people kept in a BCI computer profile. The profile showed that DNA from Bandy was a match and included him in the class of people who may have committed the crime.
Bandy has maintained his innocence, and Juhasz has claimed the state's DNA evidence will be insufficient to prove his client's guilt.