Friday, January 18, 2008
YOUNGSTOWN — An Alliance man is going to prison for sexual battery against a 17-year-old female relative.
Michael L. Rhodes, 39, of South Union Avenue, drew the six-year sentence from Judge Timothy E. Franken of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court immediately after pleading guilty to two counts of that offense Thursday.
In the nonappealable plea and sentence agreement, Natasha Frenchko, assistant county prosecutor, who recommended the six-year prison term, agreed to drop a third sexual battery count.
The offenses occurred between Dec. 1, 2006, and Jan. 6, 2007, in a Goshen Township residence, Frenchko said.
After he leaves prison, Rhodes will have to register his residence quarterly for life with the local sheriff as a sex offender.
The victim’s mother told the judge she wanted everyone “to know the kind of sick and twisted individual that he is. ... I’m glad that he is going where he is going because he will no longer be a threat to any other children or teenage girls.”
Frenchko said the plea deal was desirable because it spared the victim from the ordeal of testifying in a jury trial.