Authorities seek South Side man again

The fugitive, charged with rape, might have gone to Alabama, police said.
By PATRICIA MEADE
VINDICATOR CRIME REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Fugitive hunters who have arrested Preston L. Cunningham again and again are looking for him -- again.
For the fifth time, members of the FBI/Mahoning Valley Violent Crimes Task Force are searching for the 32-year-old South Side man charged with rape.
This time, the search is based on a warrant issued out of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court in late February. Judge James C. Evans was told then that Cunningham, who was out on bond and under electronically monitored house arrest with work privileges, had fled.
Cunningham was featured in The Vindicator as fugitive of the week in March. Anyone who knows his whereabouts is asked to call (330) 533-2017.
City Detective Sgt. John Elberty, a task force member, said Cunningham may have gone to Alabama where he has relatives. Elberty said the FBI is expected to issue a UFAP -- Unlawful Flight to Avoid Prosecution warrant -- that would alert law enforcement nationwide of the search for Cunningham.
Elberty said he doesn't understand why Cunningham wasn't kept in jail after violating bond conditions so many times. "When does this court system get straightened out?" he wondered.
The courts "crank out warrants and we arrest, he bonds out, doesn't show for court, and another warrant is issued," Elberty said. "He's been a flight risk because he only appears in court half the time."
What records show
Records show that Cunningham was indicted Jan. 26, 2006, on three counts of rape after an investigation into the Nov. 26, 2005, case involving a then-16-year-old West Side girl. The task force arrested him Jan. 31, 2006, at his residence on East Chalmers and he posted 20,000 bond. As a bond condition, he was told to stay away from the girl and her family.
After police said he had contact with the accuser and pointed a gun at her May 27, 2006, his bond was revoked and he was arrested again June 8, 2006, at a store on Erie Street where he worked. That month, the cash bond was restored but modified to include electronically monitored house arrest with work privileges. Prosecutors wanted to spare the accuser from taking the stand and were assured by the defense that Cunningham would have no further contact with her.
Judge Evans said house arrest was recommended by prosecutors last year because Cunningham was working.
The house arrest, an ankle bracelet linked electronically to a land-line phone, had been established at Cunningham's East Chalmers Avenue home June 19, 2006, said Richard J. Billak, chief executive officer at Community Corrections Association on Market Street. CCA does electronic monitoring for the courts.
Records show prosecutors, in a motion to revoke bond filed July 31, 2006, informed Judge Evans that Cunningham's house arrest monitoring equipment stopped calling in to CCA on July 26, 2006, and he told his case manager two days later that his phone had been disconnected. The case manager told him to have his phone service restored that day, but he failed to do so. Prosecutors said his refusal to cooperate with bond conditions put the accuser and community at risk.
What happened
Based on the motion, Judge Evans issued a warrant July 31, 2006, and the task force arrested Cunningham Aug. 8, 2006, at the Erie Street store. The arrest, however, came after Cunningham had restored his phone service. Billak said Cunningham was back on electronic monitor Aug. 4.
On Aug. 21, 2006, prosecutors again asked that Cunningham's bond be revoked because during the Aug. 8 arrest a booking deputy at the jail found suspected marijuana on him. Charges related to the drugs, however, were dismissed, Judge Evans said.
Prosecutor Paul J. Gains said the motions showed prosecutors wanted Cunningham's bond revoked last summer. The prosecutor said Cunningham should have been held in jail pending the rape trial.
Judge Evans disagreed with Gains' assertion, pointing out that the motions were filed after Cunningham was back on the monitor and the drugs charges were dismissed. The judge said prosecutors never asked that Cunningham's bond be increased.
Also, Judge Evans said there was a hearing last November during which Cunningham appeared and rejected a plea deal and prosecutors did not mention any problems with house arrest.
Warrants unrelated to the rape, meanwhile, that had been issued by Mahoning County Area Court in Boardman and Youngstown Municipal Court were served on Cunningham on Feb. 15. The task force arrested him that day at his East Chalmers home. The warrants were issued because he failed to appear for a child endangering case pending in Boardman since 2005 and a housing code violation case pending since May 2006 in Youngstown for a structure on Hine Street that Elberty described as a crack house. Cunningham posted bond in those cases and was released, records show.
The judge said letters CCA sent to him in February about Cunningham's cases in Boardman and Youngstown were delayed because the letters went through the common pleas clerk of court.
By then, Cunningham had already fled house arrest and the judge issued a warrant.
Billak said Cunningham "went AWOL" on Feb. 25.
Elberty said that, during one of Cunningham's arrests, the task force took 11 or 12 guns from his house for safekeeping. He said no additional charges were filed because the guns couldn't be tied to Cunningham.
meade@vindy.com