Man pleads guilty to boy’s rape

staff report

YOUNGSTOWN — A 29-year-old Meadowbrook Avenue man has pleaded guilty to a single count of raping a 10-year-old boy, and the prosecutor is recommending a 10-year prison sentence for the rapist.

Nicholas C. Congemi entered his guilty plea Monday before Judge James C. Evans, of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court, who will sentence him at 10 a.m. Nov. 14.

In the plea agreement, Dawn Cantalamessa, assistant county prosecutor, agreed to drop two other rape counts and one count of gross sexual imposition.

The single rape count to which Congemi pleaded guilty was reduced from one carrying a potential life prison sentence to a charge carrying a three-to-10-year prison term.

A May 2007 trial on the four original counts produced a hung jury and a mistrial after three full days of deliberations failed to produce a verdict on any of the charges.

Cantalamessa said she entered the plea agreement because the crime occurred in 2002, and the boy’s family wanted to bring the case to a conclusion. The plea deal eliminates the need for the victim to testify in a second trial, she noted.

Congemi remains free on $40,000 bond until he is sentenced.

Congemi’s lawyer, John F. Shultz, declined to comment after Monday’s plea hearing.