Brookfield man charged with abusing son accused of rape

By Ed Runyan

This is the first time Damion Wise was publicly accused of rape.

WARREN — A former Pennsylvania man who relocated this summer to Brookfield Township, where he is accused of abusing his 8-year-old stepson and wife, is now charged with offenses including rape that could lead to a life sentence in prison.

A Trumbull County grand jury handed up a superseding indictment Friday that accuses Damion C. Wise, 30, of Everett East Road, of eight additional charges, including rape.

Wise was arrested Aug. 22 when a concerned citizen called 911 because they noticed bruises on the 8-year-old.

When police arrived, the boy told them Wise had hit him in the feet, ankles, lower legs and head with a bat and ordered him to wear a dirty child’s diaper. The boy also was dehydrated, had black eyes, facial swelling and bruises on his hand, arm, chest, back and stomach, police said.

The boy said he was required to stay out in the yard alone for long periods while his parents cleaned the house. The boy also said Damion Wise had threatened to kill him.

The boy, who spent a few days in the hospital, and his 5-month-old brother are now in the custody of the Trumbull County Children Services Board.

No charges have been filed against Wise’s wife, Celinda, 28, who said she works full time and was unaware of the extent of her son’s injuries because Damion Wise kept her son away from her. She also said she was afraid of her husband.

Damion Wise was convicted in Eastern District Court in Brookfield earlier this summer of domestic violence and child endangering for a June 20 episode at their home on Everett East Road in which Celinda Wise said her husband held a knife to her neck, which left a mark, tried to put his thumbs in her eyes, and threw an object through the rear window of her vehicle, which endangered their then-3-month old son.

Judge Ronald Rice sentenced Damion Wise to one year in Trumbull County jail Aug. 28 on those charges.

One of the new charges handed up Friday accuses Damion Wise of raping the 8-year-old. If convicted on that charge, Wise could go to prison for life. The Brookfield police report made at the time of Wise’s Aug. 22 arrest didn’t mention rape allegations.

Friday’s new charges also include an additional count of felonious assault and six additional counts of endangering children. Five of the seven charges are felonies. If convicted on those seven new charges, Wise could get more than 44 years in prison.

Wise will be arraigned on the new charges at 9 a.m. Monday before Judge Peter Kontos in common pleas court.

Wise has criminal convictions in Pennsylvania dating back to 1998, when he was 19.

In November 2007, he was convicted of disorderly conduct for fighting, a misdemeanor, in Venango County, Pa. Wise lived in Erie at the time. His punishment was to attend a class, Alternatives to Violence.

In 2001, he pleaded guilty to theft by deception, a misdemeanor, in Venango County. He pleaded guilty to false imprisonment in Forest County the year before that, and a judge combined sentencing on the two. Wise spent some time in jail, but court records do not indicate long.

runyan@vindy.com