Austintown woman accused of groping, attacking elderly woman

By JOHN W. GOODWIN JR.

VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER

YOUNGSTOWN — A 54-year-old Austintown woman is in the Mahoning County Jail with bond set at $20,000 after police and prosecutors say she attacked, groped and exposed herself to two older women.

Police arrested Sandra Stroughter, of Westchester Drive, on Thursday afternoon at Crum and Four Mile Run roads on outstanding warrants for two counts of public indecency and sexual imposition.

According to police, a 72-year-old woman, a resident at the Goodwill Apartments on Hillman Street, told officers she was in the apartment lobby in early April when she saw Stroughter, who is a nurse’s assistant working somewhere in the building, fighting with another nurse’s assistant in an open elevator.

The woman said Stroughter was tearing off the other assistant’s shirt as the woman screamed for help.

The 72-year-old woman said she screamed for Stroughter to stop, but Stroughter then left the elevator and grabbed her breasts.

Reports say the woman told officers Stroughter, who is listed at 5 feet 6 inches tall and weighing 170 pounds, then forced her and a third woman, who tried to intervene, into a bathroom, exposed herself and asked if they wanted to touch her.

The 72-year-old resident told officers that Stroughter threatened them, ordering them not to tell what happened.

The elderly resident said she eventually went to her apartment but was visited days later by Stroughter. The woman told officers she feared for her safety.

Prosecutors told Judge Robert P. Milich of municipal court that both women went to the hospital as a result of the incident.

Judge Milich set Stroughter’s bond and told her if she makes bond, she is not to have any contact with the women she is accused of attacking.

jgoodwin@vindy.com