Trial set for '10 rape case

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

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

Judge Maureen Sweeney on Wednesday 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 Wednesday’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 league’s 13-year history that it went to the extent of asking an appellate 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 18 months.