WARREN Trial begins for man accused of sex crimes
The Warren accusers said their attacker wore a blue hooded sweatshirt.
By ED RUNYAN
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
WARREN -- The three girls who reported being sexually assaulted in Warren and two who reported assaults in Niles last year were attacked in much the same way, the prosecutor told jurors in opening statements of a rape and gross sexual imposition trial Tuesday.
Mike Burnett, an assistant Trumbull County prosecutor, said the evidence against James L. Cline Jr. of Forest Avenue Northwest will also show that the girls provided a lot of identifying information to police, such as a description of their attacker and the license plate of his car.
Some physical evidence and videotaped confessions from the defendant will also be presented, Burnett said. Cline admitted to police that he attacked three of the five girls, Burnett added.
In four of the five cases, the girls were approached while they were alone, taken to a concealed place, told to remove their clothes and bend over, Burnett said. Various criminal acts occurred after that, including rape, he said.
The girls assaulted in Warren all said their attacker was wearing a blue hooded sweatshirt, Burnett said, adding that when Cline was arrested, they found a blue hooded sweatshirt in his vehicle.
Three of the five identified Cline as their attacker through a photo lineup, including one of the Niles girls, Burnett said. During testimony later, a Warren police officer, detective Jeff Soroka, testified that one of the accusers also identified the type of knife her attacker carried from a photo lineup of knives.
Asserting innocence
Defense counsel also got a chance to address the court.
"What you will not hear is that James Cline raped anyone," said attorney Jeff Goodman during his opening statements. Goodman is representing Cline through the Ohio Public Defender's Office.
Goodman said Cline voluntarily gave a DNA sample to police on the day he was arrested, "something he did not have to do."
"You will not hear any DNA evidence linking James Cline to these crimes," Goodman said.
When testimony began, it centered on evidence from Warren police officers and the Warren accusers, age 13, 14 and 15, who were either on their way to or from school when the attacks occurred on Sept. 8, Sept. 13 and Sept. 14.
Today's testimony is likely to focus on the alleged attacks on the Niles girls, age 11 and 12, who reported they were taken from Kennedy Park in Niles at gunpoint and assaulted along Mosquito Creek on July 2, 2005.
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 an additional 31/2 to 141/2 years on the sexual imposition charges.