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Trucker, 58, bound over on sex charge involving 12-year-old girl
YOUNGSTOWN
A truck driver has been bound over to a federal grand jury and has consented to his being held without bond pending further court action on a charge that he took a 12-year-old girl out of state with intent to engage in sexual activity with her.
Iraephraim X. Underwood, 58, of Youngstown, was bound over after waiving a Friday detention hearing before U.S. Magistrate George J. Limbert.
Underwood, who was arrested Tuesday, faces 10 years to life in prison if he’s convicted.
His defense lawyer, Joseph W. Gardner, declined to comment after court on why his client waived the hearing.
The girl told FBI Agent Bonnie Hartmann that she went on about 25 trips with Underwood in his semi tractor, with Underwood engaging in sexual activity with her on at least 15 of those trips, according to an affidavit Hartmann filed with the court.
The sexual activity occurred in the tractor’s sleeper berth in Pennsylvania and Michigan between June 2013 and August 2014, the girl told the FBI agent Jan. 23.
On the final trip in August 2014, the girl said Underwood picked her up in Youngstown and engaged in sexual intercourse with her at a Michigan truck stop.
Afterward, Underwood went to a drugstore, bought a “morning after” birth-control pill and gave it to the girl, telling her she needed to take it to avoid becoming pregnant, the affidavit said.
The girl reported she became ill after taking the pill, and Underwood drove her back to the Youngstown area.
The FBI agent said she reviewed Underwood’s bank records and found the pill was purchased last Aug. 12 at a drugstore in Maryville, Mich., using a customer-rewards card registered to him.
Drugstore surveillance video showed a man making the purchase, who appeared to match Underwood’s driver’s license photo, and the man was wearing a similar, if not identical, shirt in both images, the affidavit said.
The case is being prosecuted by Michael A. Sullivan, an assistant U.S. attorney.