Child rape nets man 9 life prison terms

‘It’s been a long time coming,’ the prosecutor said of the
sentence.

By PETER H. MILLIKEN

VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER

YOUNGSTOWN — A Campbell man convicted of 16 counts of rape and nine counts of gross sexual imposition against two juvenile female relatives was sentenced to nine consecutive life prison terms — plus 75 years.

Judge Maureen A. Sweeney of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court imposed the prison time on John E. Wolff Jr., 31, of Notre Dame Drive, Wednesday after overruling defense motions for acquittal and for a new trial.

A jury convicted Wolff of the offenses Aug. 20 at the end of a six-day trial. “The evidence was sufficient to support the jury’s verdict,” the judge wrote in her judgment entry overruling the defense motions.

“The defendant committed the worst form of the offenses by preying on young girls,” Judge Sweeney said before imposing the sentence, which included nine consecutive life terms, one for each count of raping the first girl while she was under age 13.

Speaking for herself and the other victim, the first girl, now 15, told the judge: “We want to set it right. We want to put somebody away who hurt two little girls and who doesn’t need to hurt anybody else.”

Paul Conn, defense lawyer, told Judge Sweeney that an appeal will be filed. “There’s no actual physical proof that these things happened,” he said. Wolff did not make any comments in court before sentencing.

“I will never see my brother again, except through plate glass,” if the appeal fails, said Dawna Wolff of Campbell. “I’ve never known him to hurt a soul, let alone little girls,” she said of her only brother.

“An innocent man was jailed for life for something there’s no way he could have committed,” she said after court.

“It’s been a long time coming for these victims,” Dawn Krueger, assistant county prosecutor, said after court. “The victims first notified the police and authorities back in 2001,” she added. After a lengthy investigation, Wolff was indicted by a grand jury Sept. 14, 2006.

The offenses Wolff was convicted of committing against the first girl — 12 counts of rape and seven counts of gross sexual imposition — were alleged to have occurred between July 2000 and April 2006, when she was between the ages of 9 and 14. Nine of those rape counts carried a mandatory life sentence.

Wolff was convicted of four counts of rape and two counts of gross sexual imposition against the second girl between July 2000 and November 2001, while she was 13 and 14 years old.