Men plead guilty to sex crimes

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Jason King

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Justin Sudimak

The guilty pleas for sexual battery were entered in separate cases that involved different victims.

STAFF REPORT

YOUNGSTOWN — A 24-year-old Salem man has been sentenced to three years in prison for having sex with a former high school friend while she was sleeping after a house party in Goshen Township.

Jason K. King, West Sixth Street, will be eligible for probation after six months in prison, but Judge John M. Durkin of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court said Tuesday he hasn’t decided how soon he will get out.

In court, King’s attorney, Gary Van Brocklin, said King had sex with the woman at 7 a.m. in the same house where the two and others were having a party.

Van Brocklin said his client and others were drinking at the party, and his client was smoking marijuana.

James MacDonald, an assistant county prosecutor, said the victim also had been drinking July 3 but was mainly only asleep, not really impaired, the next morning when King had sex with her without her knowledge.

She awoke while the conduct was taking place, MacDonald said.

The party was a sort of reunion among former school classmates.

King pleaded guilty last month to sexual battery, for which he could have gotten up to five years in prison.

As a convicted sex offender, King will have to report his residence quarterly to authorities for life.

The victim spoke during King’s sentencing, saying King “took advantage” of her and violated her trust.

The violation caused her to withdraw from family members and eventually receive counseling and medication. “I have paid for his choices,” she said.

Van Brocklin said that impairment because of drugs and alcohol are not a defense for such a violation but that he believes the offense would not have happened if drugs and alcohol had not been involved.

“I applaud you for seeing this case through,” Judge Durkin told the victim. “And I hope you will leave here with your head held high, because you should.”

Meanwhile, Justin Sudimak, 21, of Mahoning Avenue, North Jackson, also pleaded guilty to sexual battery for forcing a 16-year-old Austintown girl to have sex with him in her bedroom. He entered his plea Tuesday before Judge R. Scott Krichbaum of common pleas court.

Sudimak and the girl knew each other through their parents, MacDonald said, adding that Sudimak showed up at the girl’s house impaired by drugs or alcohol. The girl let Sudimak sleep in her room to keep him from getting into trouble because of his impaired state, MacDonald said.

Sudimak was indicted on charges of rape, aggravated burglary and burglary. He was allowed to plead guilty to the lesser offense because the girl and her mother felt Sudimak has “personal issues” that will be remedied with treatment, MacDonald said. The prosecutor’s office will recommend a treatment program instead of prison.

Judge Krichbaum will sentence Sudimak at 8:30 a.m. Jan. 22.