15-year-old arrested on rape charge

YOUNGSTOWN — A 15-year-old Matta Avenue boy was arrested at his home at 12:30 a.m. today on a rape charge and taken to the Martin P. Joyce Juvenile Justice Center, police said. When interviewed by police, the boy said a girl he believed was 13 asked him to engage in a sex act. He said they first went to the tunnel of the jungle gym at West Elementary School playground and then she told him she had a better place and led him into the woods, where they attempted to have intercourse. Reports show the South Schenley Avenue girl, who is 11, told police they rode their bikes to the woods at dead end of Bon Air Avenue around 5:30 p.m. Tuesday and the boy asked her to have sex with him. A witness, a 12-year-old girl with the same address as the boy, told police she watched a part of the sex act in the woods and then went home and told her parents. The 11-year-old girl was taken to St. Elizabeth Health Center for a rape examination.