Man faces charges of sex with children

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

Police had to do a little work before finally arresting a 32-year-old man who was indicted on felony charges associated with sexual activity with children.

Ralph Smith, of Seneca Street, was indicted earlier this month on one count of raping a child, who was 5 and 6 years old, between Sept. 1, 2005, and Jan. 23, 2007.

Smith also was indicted on 22 counts of child endangering in the same time frame, pertaining to that child and to another child, who was then between age 7 and 9.

Smith faces a potential life prison term if he’s convicted of the rape charge.

Officers went to Smith’s Seneca Street address to arrest him Thursday morning but got no response at the door. Officers looked through a window and noticed a female lying on a bed in the first-floor living room, but the woman would not let officers into the home.

The woman inside the house at first told officers Smith was not there. Then she said she was unsure who was in the house. Officers decided to force the door open after hearing noises from a second-floor bedroom and seeing curtains move in that same room.

Police removed the woman who had been lying in the living room. She then told officers that Smith was hiding in the attic.

A canine unit was called in and searched the second floor of the house. Smith crawled out of a hatch in the attic and surrendered to police about an hour after officers first reached the North Side dwelling.