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Man accused of raping relative, 6 years old, maintains innocence
The defendant is facing a possible life prison term.
YOUNGSTOWN — The prosecution says George Berendt raped a 6-year-old female relative, but the defense emphatically maintains Berendt’s innocence.
Berendt went on trial Monday before a seven-man, five-woman jury on a single count of rape, with Judge Timothy E. Franken of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court presiding.
If convicted of the offense, which is alleged to have occurred April 14, Berendt, 36, of Millet Avenue, could face a possible life prison sentence.
The girl consistently named Berendt as her assailant, first to her teenage cousin, then to police, hospital examiners and child advocacy workers, Dawn Cantalamessa, an assistant county prosecutor, said in her opening statement.
“Most children are afraid of the monster in the closet or the monster under their bed,” Cantalamessa said. However, for the 6-year-old accuser in this case, the “monster” was the defendant, she added.
However, defense lawyer George Kafantaris said his client is a hard worker who helps others financially. “That’s all he does. He works, goes home and sleeps,” Kafantaris said, adding that his client plans to testify in his own defense.
Kafantaris said he didn’t know whether the girl injured herself in a fall or by some other means. Whatever happened to the girl, he said: “George didn’t do it.”
The prosecution’s first witness was the accuser’s 17-year-old cousin, who said she tried unsuccessfully on April 14 to bathe the 6-year-old, who was crying. “She wouldn’t let me take her into the bathtub” because she said her vagina hurt, the accuser’s cousin testified. The 17-year-old testified that she observed redness in the young child’s vaginal area.
The 17-year-old, who pointed to the defendant in court, testified that the accuser identified “George” as her assailant.
The accuser, her father and the 17-year-old then went to the St. Elizabeth Health Center emergency room in Austintown for an examination of the young girl.
Youngstown Patrolman Douglas Pesa, who was called to the Austintown facility, testified that the young girl identified George to him as her assailant and pointed to her genitals. The assault is alleged to have occurred at the defendant’s home on the West Side of Youngstown.
The young child, who Pesa described as shy and scared, was then taken to St. Elizabeth Health Center in Youngstown for a complete sexual-assault examination.
Under cross-examination by Kafantaris, Pesa acknowledged that he did not personally perform the follow-up investigation at the location of the alleged assault, nor did he conduct follow-up interviews with other members of the accuser’s family.
Pesa said he filed his report on what happened at the Austintown emergency room, and that report went to detectives and the police crisis intervention unit for follow-up.