Boggs found innocent of rape

Jurors appeared to agree with the explanation offered by the defendant’s lawyer.

YOUNGSTOWN — A jury of six men and six women has found a New Springfield man innocent of rape and sexual battery.

James Boggs, of Macklin Road, went on trial before Judge James C. Evans of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court earlier this week on the rape and sexual- battery charges. The jury deliberated for a full day before reaching the verdict.

One juror had to be replaced with an alternate on the second day of deliberations. The verdict was announced in the early afternoon Thursday.

The state contends that Boggs was at a party attended by dozens of people, including the accuser and her husband.

According to Natasha Frenchko, an assistant county prosecutor, the woman had gotten drunk and went to the basement of the house where the party took place and passed out. Boggs, the state says, went to the basement, took the unconscious woman behind a curtain and sexually assaulted her on a table.

A man attending the party walked in on the act, causing Boggs to discontinue his assault on the woman, prosecutors say.

But jurors seemed to agree with an explanation offered by Boggs’ lawyer, Martin Yavorcik, who argued that the accuser had been caught “red-handed” having sex with Boggs by a guest at the party while the woman’s husband was upstairs, leading to the allegations of rape.

Yavorcik said the actions of the witness who walked in on the act help show Boggs is innocent. He said that witness did not try to detain Boggs or alert others at the party but simply sat and had a conversation with the woman.

Yavorcik also questioned the investigative practices of the police handling the investigation.

During the four-day trial, Boggs was accompanied by a female companion.

jgoodwin@vindy.com