YOUNGSTOWN Lawyers set out cases in rape trial

The defendant faces a life term if convicted of rape.
By PETER H. MILLIKEN
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- The prosecutor said Nicholas C. Congemi used his position as a trusted family friend to abuse and rape a 10-year-old boy, but Congemi's lawyer said his client is an innocent victim of manipulation.
"The defendant, Nicholas Congemi, is a liar, a con artist, and, most of all, a child molester," said Dawn Krueger, assistant Mahoning County prosecutor, in her opening statement Tuesday afternoon in Congemi's trial before a seven-woman, five-man jury. "He used that trust that the family had to manipulate their 10-year-old son," Krueger said.
Congemi, 27, of Meadowbrook Avenue, faces a mandatory life sentence if he's convicted on any of the three rape counts he's facing and one to five years in prison if he's convicted on the one count of gross sexual imposition he's charged with. The trial is before Judge James C. Evans of common pleas court.
Congemi offered to pay the boy to cut the grass weekly at Congemi's residence in 2002, Krueger said. After a few weeks, Congemi invited the youngster into the house to get paid, told the boy to disrobe and fondled the boy's genitals, with the sexual behavior escalating from there in encounters later that summer, the prosecutor said.
Congemi promised to give the boy 50 toward purchase of a trampoline if he cooperated with the sexual activity, and the boy reluctantly complied, Krueger told the jury. "He felt he couldn't say no. He was afraid of the defendant," she added.
Parents called police
The following year, the boy's parents were puzzled when he declined the grass-cutting job at Congemi's residence, Krueger said.
Eventually, the boy told his parents about his alleged sexual encounters with Congemi, and the boy's parents called police, Krueger said. Congemi was indicted in August 2003.
The boy, now 15, an A student and high school football player, stands by his accusations, Krueger said. "No matter how embarrassing it is for him to talk about it, he doesn't want it to happen to anybody else," the prosecutor said.
"My client genuinely was just a good, hard-working guy," Congemi's lawyer, John Shultz, told the jury. Congemi was a close friend of the boy's family and attended many of that family's dinners and picnics, Shultz said. Congemi even took the boy alone to Cedar Point, and there were no allegations of inappropriate behavior on that trip, Shultz said.
Congemi helped finance many of the activities of the boy's family, Shultz said, adding that his client co-signed for a vehicle for a member of the boy's family and paid 50 toward a trampoline for that family's children.
"He's guilty of being a fool," Shultz said of his client. "He was not the manipulator," Shultz said of Congemi. "He did nothing wrong."
Why the boy didn't want to work for Congemi again in 2003 is a only a matter of conjecture and speculation, Shultz said, noting that Congemi continued to attend gatherings of the boy's family after the summer of 2002 and that the criminal charges didn't surface until a year after the alleged violations.
milliken@vindy.com