Trial date set for 2010 rape case

YOUNGSTOWN — A trial date was set today for a rape case that has been pending since April 2010 in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court.

Judge Maureen Sweeney set the trial date for Maurice Clark, 29, who is charged with a September 2009 rape and kidnapping, for Monday.

The Justice League of Ohio filed a writ of mandamus in the 7th District Court of Appeals in February on behalf of the victim in the case, saying that five years is too long for justice to be served.

Elizabeth Well, an attorney for the league who filed the mandamus, said after today's hearing the case has been delayed 19 times since Clark was indicted, sometimes at the request of prosecutors, or defense counsel.

Well said the case is the first in the 13-year history of the League of Justice that they have went to the extent to ask an appeals court to force a trial court to have a trial.

Well said the Ohio Supreme Court has estimated a typical rape case should not take more than six months to go to court, although she acknowledged the regular time frame for such a case to be heard is between a year and a 18 months.