Man pleads innocent to 10 rape charges

Staff report

WARREN

A Windham man has pleaded innocent in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court to 10 counts of rape and one count of gross sexual imposition — charges that could produce a life prison sentence.

Edward Leasure, 50, of Blanton Drive, is accused of raping one girl repeatedly from August 2001, when she was 6, to August 2010, when she was 15. He is being held in the Trumbull County jail in lieu of $500,000 bond.

Eight of the charges say he committed the offense by use of force or threat of force.

Leasure also is accused of raping another girl in the fall of 2005, when she was 11, and committing gross sexual imposition against a third girl in the summer of 2009, when she was 11.

His charges indicate that he committed the crimes in Trumbull County.