Man faces eight rape counts

WARREN — A 37-year-old former McDonald man has pleaded innocent to eight counts of rape, two of them with possible life sentences.

Alfred H. Christner Jr. of Donley Road, Middlefield, was secretly indicted this week by a Trumbull County grand jury. He is accused of raping a female under age 18 eight times between 2001 and 2007.

He was arraigned on Thursday morning in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court before Judge John M. Stuard. He is in Trumbull County Jail on a $200,000 bond. His first pretrial hearing is set for Aug. 27 before Judge Peter Kontos.

Diane Barber, an assistant county prosecutor, said Christner is accused of committing four of the acts on the same day, and the four others on four other dates.

She would not say anything more about Christner’s relationship to the girl, to avoid identifying her. The rapes occurred in McDonald and the Bloomfield area, Barber said.

He could be sentenced to as much as 18 to 60 years on the six rape charges and up to life in prison on the two others.