Man gets 10-year term for raping young girl

By Peter H. Milliken

After prison, the sex offender must register quarterly for life.

YOUNGSTOWN — A 62-year-old Niles man has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for raping an 8-year-old Austintown girl in the summer of 2007.

Judge John M. Durkin of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court imposed three concurrent 10-year prison terms Friday on Harry Fraley, formerly of Royal Mall Apartments.

A police report said the assaults occurred at the girl’s residence and at the Leonard Kirtz School. Fraley worked for a private firm as a security guard at the school.

Neighbors and the girl’s grandmother told police they saw Fraley kissing the girl “all over her body.” A witness who reported seeing Fraley fondle the child on a trampoline called the county Children Services Board.

Fraley had pleaded guilty in August to three counts of raping the girl, and the prosecution agreed to drop the element of force from the rape charges, thereby removing the possibility of a life prison term. The prosecution also dropped three counts of gross sexual imposition.

James MacDonald, assistant county prosecutor, said he made the plea deal to spare the young victim the ordeal of testifying in a trial.

The victim’s mother, who called for the maximum sentence, told the judge Fraley robbed her daughter of her innocence and “scarred her for life.”

She added that her daughter has nightmares, in which she screams in the middle of the night, doesn’t trust men, and fears Fraley will harm her and her family if he is released from prison.

With the force specification removed, 10 years is the maximum sentence for each rape count. Had the judge imposed all three 10-year terms consecutively, Fraley would have gone to prison for 30 years.

Given Fraley’s age, the judge said the three concurrent 10 year prison terms he imposed are tantamount to a life sentence.

After prison, Fraley, who apologized in court and asked for forgiveness, will be on parole for five years and he’ll have to register as a sex offender with the sheriff quarterly for life.

He’ll be barred from living within 1,000 feet of any school, pre-school or child day care center.

Judge Durkin ordered Fraley to have no contact with the victim or her family.

Noting that Fraley had no prior felony or violent crime convictions, Thomas Zena, the defense lawyer, asked the judge to impose the 10 years in prison the prosecutor recommended.

While living in Boardman, Fraley pleaded no contest and was convicted of public indecency in 1997 and 1999, receiving probation in both cases.

In the first case, he exposed himself to a 3-year-old girl in a department store. In the second case, he exposed himself to a child who was sitting in a car waiting for her mother outside an apartment complex.