Man again found innocent of rape

The public is being 'way too judgmental' of victims, a prosecutor says.
By DEBORA SHAULIS
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- A city man has been found innocent of rape for the second time in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court.
On Friday a jury cleared David N. Hackett, 43, of Stratmore Avenue, of three counts of rape and one count of kidnapping. Hackett had been charged with holding a woman at knife-point in his car and forcing her to have sex in January 2005. The weeklong trial was in the courtroom of Judge Maureen A. Cronin.
Last October, a different jury found Hackett innocent of two counts of rape and one count of kidnapping. Those charges stemmed from a case in October 2004, when another woman reported being raped at knife-point in a man's car.
Atty. Thomas E. Zena, who represented Hackett, said he believes the jury was swayed by evidence that the accuser's boyfriend had called Hackett's cell phone after the accuser testified that they didn't know Hackett.
Got ride from Hackett
She and her boyfriend were waiting for a bus at the Western Reserve Transit Authority station downtown when Hackett offered them a ride. Hackett stopped at an East Side convenience store so the other man could buy cigarettes, but drove off while he was in the store and the woman was in the back seat of the car, she said.
Hackett said the woman and her boyfriend asked him for a ride. Hackett also knew the consequences of criminal acts because of his prior record, Zena said. Hackett was a teenager when he was convicted of aggravated murder and aggravated robbery, for which he served 23 years in prison. He was released on parole from the Lorain Correctional Institution in November 2002.
Prosecutor's reaction
"The public is being way too judgmental of victims," Dawn Krueger, an assistant county prosecutor, said after the verdict. "Apparently only upstanding citizens are allowed to claim rape."
The accuser in this case was homeless, Krueger said. The other woman "I guess didn't act like a victim should act," she added.
In the previous trial, the accuser had testified that she met a man at a party, left with him to have sex, had an argument and was shot at when she got out of his car. She said she was seeking help when Hackett offered her a ride.
Hackett was indicted in both cases at once because of the similarities, with the same threats being made to the accusers and a knife used both times, Krueger said. The cases may have been stronger if they had been tried simultaneously, Krueger said, but Judge Cronin ruled that Hackett was to be tried separately.
shaulis@vindy.com