Benchea spent considerable alone time with step-granddaughter, witnesses testify in rape trial
WARREN
The brother, cousin and aunt of the 12-year-old girl accusing her stepgrandfather, Rick Benchea, of raping her repeatedly over four years testified in Benchea’s trial Tuesday in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court.
All of them knew Benchea as if he were their biological father or grandfather because he’d been in their lives so long, but his strict style of discipline matched the description the girl gave of him. They all lived with Benchea, 62, during the time period of the purported rapes.
“He would treat us really bad,” the girl’s 14-year-old cousin testified. “If we didn’t do something right, he would hit us,” he said.
He and the victim’s brother, also 14, spent a lot of time together during the years they lived with Benchea and his wife on Belvedere Avenue Southeast until last summer.
It was common for Benchea to send them out to play, but it was less common for him to send the girl out to play, he said, adding that there were times when the two of them were alone in his bedroom.
He also had strict rules regarding the children’s bedtime and would have disciplined them harshly if any of them would have gotten out of bed at night, the girl’s brother testified. The boy said he and his cousin “would usually get beat” if they didn’t follow Benchea’s rules.
Benchea didn’t work, but his wife did, so he was alone with the girl a lot in the afternoons, her brother said.
Read more about the case in Wednesday's Vindicator or on Vindy.com.