Court upholds Youngstown man’s rape conviction

STAFF REPORT

YOUNGSTOWN — The 7th District Court of Appeals has upheld the conviction of 56-year-old West Chalmers Avenue man for the kidnapping and rape of a 22-year-old man with cerebral palsy.

On Friday, a three-judge panel of the appellate court unanimously ruled against Ronald Kolb, who was convicted in a March 2007 jury trial before Judge Maureen A. Cronin of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court.

When the victim emerged to take out the trash from a Mahoning Avenue bar where he worked July 29, 2006, Kolb ordered him into a car at gunpoint and drove to a nearby restaurant parking lot, where the sex act occurred.

Judge Cronin sentenced Kolb to 10 years in prison.

The appeals court dismissed Kolb’s claims that the prosecutor’s questioning aimed at impeaching the credibility of a defense witness was irrelevant and prejudicial, and that the prosecutor improperly suggested Kolb’s guilt by questioning a police officer about an irrelevant statement from Kolb.

The impeachment material was reasonable, relevant and properly admissible; and the judge cured the problem with the police officer’s testimony by instructing the jury to disregard the offending question and response, the appellate court ruled.