Trial to begin for man charged in assaults

The attacker used a gun in Niles and a knife in Warren.
By ED RUNYAN
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
WARREN -- Opening statements will begin today in the rape trial of a 32-year-old city man accused of sexual assaults on three teenage girls here and two girls in Niles last year.
James L. Cline Jr., 32, of Forest Avenue Northwest faces charges of three counts of rape and five charges of gross sexual imposition in the attacks. The case is being heard by Judge John M. Stuard of Trumbull County Common Pleas Court. A jury was seated Monday.
If convicted, Cline could get from 10 years to life in prison on two of the rape charges, three to 10 years in prison on the other rape charge, and another 31/2 to 141/2 years on the sexual imposition charges.
The rape charges that carry life imprisonment are related to the sexual assault of girls age 11 and 12 along Mosquito Creek in Niles. Mike Burnett, an assistant county prosecutor, said the assaults took place near Kennedy Park on July 2, 2005.
Burnett said the girls were taken from the park by a man with a gun. He took them to an area near the creek, assaulted them and let them go, Burnett said. The rapes warranted the life imprisonment charges because of the age of the girls (under 13) and because a gun was used, he said.
Other charges are related to assaults on girls age 13, 14 and 15 in Warren.
Last September, Traci Rose, an assistant Warren law director, told Judge Thomas Gysegem of municipal court during Cline's initial appearance that the rape charge stems from a Sept. 8 attack on a 15-year-old Linden Street Southeast girl on railroad tracks between Woodland and East Market streets while she was walking home from Warren G. Harding High School.
Incidents
The gross sexual imposition charges stem from attacks on a 13-year-old East Middle School student walking to school on Kenilworth Avenue Southeast on Sept. 13 and a 14-year-old walking to the school Sept. 14.
In each of the Warren cases, the attacker came up behind the victim, grabbed her and assaulted her, Warren police said.
Burnett said the trial will last three to four days and involve as many as 22 witnesses. He said one part of the evidence will be DNA from one of the victims that was found on the knife used in one of the Warren assaults.
Rose said Cline "has an extensive criminal history" in Ohio and Texas, and authorities said he has a criminal record that goes back to the 1990s, primarily for theft, forgeries and receiving stolen property.
Warren police caught Cline in a back yard on Laird Avenue Northeast after a two-block foot pursuit in September. Cline had run from the vehicle after police stopped the minivan he was driving at Bonnie Brae Avenue and Woodland Street. Police said the minivan had run a red light shortly after the last of the three Warren attacks Sept. 14.
Cline has been in county jail with bond set at $500,000.