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Niles man gets 35 years in prison for attacking, raping former girlfriend
By Ed Runyan
WARREN
Cecil Flenner, 41, of Potomac Avenue in Niles was sentenced to 35 years in prison Monday for raping a former girlfriend, committing aggravated burglary, kidnapping, domestic violence and tampering with evidence.
He was convicted at a trial last month in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court before Judge Peter Kontos.
Police said the charges stem from Flenner’s breaking into a trailer in the Forest Grove mobile home park on Weir Road in Howland on Aug. 26, 2016, while the woman was sleeping, and raping her while holding a crowbar.
The victim said at the hearing that the attack was “the most terrifying and horrific night of my life,” saying she replays it “over and over in my head every time I go to sleep.”
She said her fear was so great that she called the county jail multiple times per week while Flenner was locked up “to make sure he didn’t get out somehow.” She added that she feared Flenner would “finish what he started.”
She said Flenner, who has a lengthy arrest record at the Trumbull County Jail, had threatened to kill her during the rapes. “I will never forget coming to and seeing him walk away after he choked me out. He thought I was dead, and he didn’t care at all.”
He forced the woman to shower and put on clean clothes in an attempt to destroy DNA evidence, police said. She tried to flee, and Flenner dragged her back to the bedroom by her hair, injuring her knees as they scraped on the carpeting, police said.
Flenner fell asleep on the couch, allowing the victim to call 911 and wait for officers outside. Police arrested Flenner and found the crowbar next to the nightstand.
A window on the side of the trailer had been broken out, and Flenner’s truck was found in the parking lot of a nearby church, police said.
In another case, Virginia M. Barborak, 46, of South Ridge Drive in Salem, former Lisbon solicitor, was arraigned Monday. She was indicted last month by a Trumbull County grand jury on forgery, perjury, grand theft and two counts of records tampering connected to her law practice. The offenses took place from March 2013 to March 2015, her indictment says. She pleaded not guilty, and Judge Kontos ordered pretrial release, which means she has to report weekly to the county’s Adult Probation Department and doesn’t have to pay anything to stay out of jail.
The case is being prosecuted by Bradford L. Tammaro and Micah Ault, assistant attorneys general for Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine.
Attorney general spokesman Dan Tierney declined to comment on the nature of the charges other than the crimes occurred in Trumbull County and are related to her law practice.
In December, the Ohio Supreme Court permanently disbarred Barborak based on a Columbiana County Bar Association complaint.
The association charged Barborak with rules infractions based on her actions in four probate matters.
The complaint alleged that Barborak failed to hold funds belonging to the estates in an interest-bearing trust account separate from her own property, failed to maintain required records documenting the funds entrusted to her, and falsified bank statements and probate accountings to conceal her misappropriation of client funds.
Barborak admitted that, at one point, her client trust account balance was about $12,000 when the account should have held more than $170,000, the Supreme Court said.