Friday, March 21, 2008
The rapist faces a possible life prison term.
YOUNGSTOWN — Sentencing will be at noon Monday for Michael Kaufman, convicted of four counts each of rape and gross sexual imposition and one count of felonious sexual penetration in multiple assaults on two boys.
A six-man, six-woman jury convicted Kaufman of all nine counts Thursday afternoon after deliberating for six hours at the end of a four-day trial before Judge R. Scott Krichbaum of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court.
Kaufman’s bond was revoked, and he was taken to Mahoning County Jail after the verdicts were read. Kaufman, 40, of Berkshire Drive, faces a possible life prison term on each of the rape counts and on the felonious sexual penetration count. The four gross sexual imposition counts carry prison sentences of one to five years each.
The crimes occurred in Mahoning County between 1995 and 2003, and the victims were both male relatives between the ages of 8 and 11 when the offenses occurred.
“We will recommend life in prison because of the severity of the crimes,” said J. Michael Thompson, assistant county prosecutor. “Anyone who has a pattern like this, where they keep finding new boys to victimize, does not belong on the streets.”
The victims are now 15 and 20 years old and reside in Wisconsin. The older boy lived in the Mahoning Valley when the assaults occurred. The younger boy, who has always lived in Wisconsin, was assaulted during summer visits to the Mahoning Valley. Both boys and Kaufman testified during the trial.
Before the trial began, Kaufman rejected an agreement in which the prosecution offered to recommend a six-year prison term in exchange for guilty pleas to two rape counts, one for each boy, with the prosecution dismissing all other counts.
Thompson said the case was that of a “family member taking advantage of authority to engage in unwanted, illegal sexual conduct.”
Thompson said of the victims: “If it were not for their courage in coming forward, then we would never have been able to try this case and we would never have gotten this guy off the streets.”
Thompson noted that the case was presented solely with witness testimony and with no DNA or other scientific evidence. “Our case was to put those two boys on the stand, and they were wonderful witnesses,” he said.
Thompson and Natasha K. Frenchko, another assistant county prosecutor, prosecuted the case.
Defense lawyer John B. Juhasz declined to comment after the verdicts were read.