Rape suspect not hired by MRDD

MRDD will do its own
background checks on
contract-firm employees.

By WILLIAM K. ALCORN

VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER

AUSTINTOWN — A man accused of raping an 8-year-old girl was a security guard at Leonard Kirtz School but was not an employee of the Mahoning County Board of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities.

Instead, said MRDD Superintendent Larry Duck, Harry Fraley, 61, of Niles was an employee of REMCO Security, a division of R.C. Enterprises, 5234 Southern Blvd., Youngstown, with which the board contracted for on-premises after-hours security services at the MRDD board and school buildings in Austintown, Duck said.

Fraley was indicted Sept. 13 by a Mahoning County grand jury on three counts of rape and three counts of gross sexual imposition. Fraley is described in an Austintown police report as a family friend. The girl’s mother told Austintown police Aug. 28 that he sexually assaulted her daughter on numerous occasions from June through August. The assaults occurred at the family home and at Leonard Kirtz School, where Fraley used to be a security guard, the report says.

What specifically concerns the board is that the police report says the assaults occurred at Leonard Kirtz School. Duck fears that may leave the false impression that Fraley was a board employee.

Time line

Here is information Duck provided about the situation:

UThe MRDD board contracted with REMCO for on-premises after-hours security beginning March 6, 2007, after experiencing vandalism on MRDD property.

UThe MRDD administration contacted REMCO in mid-July 2007 after receiving a report from staff saying that Fraley had visitors on site while working and that one may have been an underage female. Mahoning County Children Services Board was also notified.

UAs of July 22, MRDD told REMCO that it no longer wanted Fraley working on its property. Fraley had worked various dates from March 14, 2007, through July 22, 2007.

UREMCO told MRDD that its background check on Fraley did not turn up anything. However, according to court records, Fraley was convicted of public indecency in 1997 and 1999 after pleading no contest in both cases. He lived in Boardman at that time.

As a result, Duck said MRDD will, in the future, do its own background checks.

Also, Duck said, “I think we need to clarify that there are to be no visitors for any guards, and clarify how companies do background checks.”

alcorn@vindy.com