Displaying items by tag: Rape

The special investigative unit of the Akron Police that was formed in February of this year and designed specifically to investigate cold case sexual assaults, is getting more federal money courtesy of the US Department of Justice.

According to a press release from the City of Akron (see below), the Akron Sexual Assault Kit Initiative is getting $1.9 Million over the course of the next three years. The money will be spread out across the Akron Police Department, Summit County Prosecutor's Office, Victim Assistance Program of Summit County, and the Rape Crisis Center of Medina and Summit.

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(CITY OF AKRON) The Akron Sexual Assault Kit Initiative (ASAKI) Team is growing!  ASAKI, a multi-disciplinary, community response team that formed in February 2019 to investigate and prosecute cold case sexual assaults, has been awarded a second grant from the U.S. Department of Justice to enhance the team and expand its impact. 

In 2018, the Akron Police Department (APD) was awarded an initial 3-year grant (2019-2021) for nearly $1 million that provided the personnel, supplies, technology, and management systems necessary to form and support the ASAKI team.  That funding created three new detective positions, a civilian administrative position, and supported new case management software as well as the partial costs of a Summit County prosecutor and a victim assistance advocate who work with the investigators on the team.

Now, the City of Akron is proud to announce that ASAKI will receive an additional $1,980,292 over three years (2020-2022) to enhance the team.  The grant will fund additional community partner personnel, adding a research and evaluation component, and expanding evidence-based, trauma-informed investigation training for all members of the APD Investigative Subdivision.

 New funding for current members of ASAKI includes:

·        Akron Police Department: $73,953 for overtime for detectives

·        Summit County Prosecutor’s Office: $645,109 for a full-time prosecutor and paralegal

·        Victim Assistance Program of Summit County: $263,835 for 1.5 full-time victim advocates (which makes 2 full-time advocates when combined with the 2018 funding) and partial funding for a supervisor

·        Rape Crisis Center of Medina and Summit Counties: $535,262 for 2 full-time victim advocates and a victim therapist

“This grant will help continue the difficult work of investigating these cold cases, convicting rapists, and potentially preventing future sexual assaults,” Summit County Prosecutor Sherri Bevan Walsh said.  “This new resource will provide my office with the tools needed to prosecute more offenders and assist my mission of keeping Summit County safe.”

This new funding also allows APD to add two new partners to the ASAKI team who will assist with the ultimate goal of cultural and institutional change in the way law enforcement, the criminal justice system, and the community responds to sexual assaults.

ASAKI is partnering with the researchers from the Begun Center for Violence Prevention Research and Education at Case Western Reserve University’s Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences. The CWRU research team will receive $425,000 to collect and analyze information on the sexual assaults to better understand offending patterns and how to help improve our jurisdiction’s response to sexual assault.

“By working in collaboration with APD, we can help change how sexual assaults are handled in the criminal justice system and how the system and society view sexual assaults, victims, and offenders,” said Rachel Lovell, PhD, the lead researcher on the project. 

APD is also partnering with Dr. Patrick Palmieri of the Summa Health Traumatic Stress Center which will receive $20,000. ASAKI team members are trained in Trauma Informed Sexual Assault Investigation and Prosecution and Forensic Experiential Trauma Interview (FETI).  Dr. Palmieri will work with them to develop a customized and condensed evidence-based training on trauma-informed investigation that will be provided to APD’s entire Investigative Subdivision.

“This training not only improves the experience for survivors and witnesses experiencing trauma, but also improves investigations as a whole by yielding better information that can be used to pursue justice in these cases,” Akron Police Chief Ken Ball said.  

For more information about the work of the ASAKI team, please visit www.sakitta.org/akron.

Former Kent State criminology student Connor Hendry, 21, who once worked for the KSU PD, was sentenced to 180 days in jail after pleading guilty to a lesser charged of Gross Sexual Imposition connected to an on-campus incident back in April of 2018.

Hendry, whose father used to work for the KSU PD, was originally charged with rape, but only months after the incident was reported.

Hendry is will have to register as a Tier One sex offender for the next 15 years and is banned from KSU campus forever.

See more from the Record Courier. 

An Akron man will spend the rest of his life in prison after pleading guilty to two counts of rape, according to the Summit County Prosecutor's Office.

Back in October, Raymond Smiley pled guilty to raping his girlfriend's young daughter on two separate occassions.

Common Pleas Court Judge Christine Croce sentenced Smiley, who isn't eligible for parole for 20 years, on Tuesday.

See the full press release from the Prosecutor's Office below: 

Summit County Prosecutor Sherri Bevan Walsh announced today that Summit County Common Pleas Court Judge Christine Croce sentenced Raymond Smiley, 39, of McGowan Street in Akron, to LIFE IN PRISON for raping a young girl.

On October 23, 2018 Smiley pled guilty to the following charges:

• Two Counts of Rape – Felonies of the 1st degree

Smiley admitted to raping his girlfriend’s young daughter on two separate occasions. 

“What this defendant did was horrifying. I am very grateful he will spend a significant amount of time in prison where he won’t be able to hurt innocent young girls,” said Prosecutor Walsh. “The survivor and her mother showed tremendous strength in standing up to him. My prosecutors and victim advocates did an outstanding job in getting justice.” 

Smiley will be eligible for parole after serving 20 years in prison.

Judge Croce also designated Smiley a Tier III sex offender. If he is released from prison, Smiley will have to register with the local sheriff every 90 days for the rest of his life.

The Summit County Sheriff's Office says they've charged Sage Smerk, 18, with rape, after he admitted to sexually assaulting a 5-year-old girl he was babysitting.

The mother of the victim came home October 28th to find her daughter and 2-year-old son alone in the house, where Smerk was supposed to be watching them. She called Smerk, he admitted to the assault, and she then called the Sheriff's Office. After a short pursuit, during which Smerk pulled out an airsoft pistol and fired it out his window, Smerk was apprehended.

He's charged with felony rape, but facing more charges pending the investigation.

See the full press release from the Summit County Sheriff's Office below. 

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On October 28, 2018, a mother came home and found that her 5 year old daughter and 2 year old son had been left alone for two hours by the 18 year old babysitter. The mother called the babysitter, identified as 18 year old Sage Smerk and inquired as to why he left the children unattended. Smerk indicated that he had sexually assault the 5 year old female. The mother immediately called the Summit County Sheriff’s Office and reported the incident. Summit County Sheriff’s Deputies located Smerk’s vehicle on Mayfair Road and they attempted to initiate a traffic stop. Smerk failed to stop and subsequently fled toward North Canton. During the pursuit, Smerk fired an air pistol out the window of his vehicle at the patrol deputies and ran several intersections before he was apprehended without incident on Maple Street in North Canton.

Smerk was charged with Rape (F-1) and Failure to Obey an Order of a Police Officer (F-3). Additional charges are pending the outcome of the investigation. \

Convicted Akron rapist Roland Pyle, 52, was sentenced to life in prison on Thursday, according to Summit County Prosecutor Sherri Bevan Walsh. 

Pyle's victim came forward to a school counselor recently, alleging that Pyle raped her back in 2013 on her 11th birthday. Pyle was charged with one count of felony rape of a victim under the age of 13 and one count of gross sexual imposition, a third degree felony. 

Pyle is not eligible for parole. 

A man suspected of attempting to rape a woman is dead after a standoff with Akron Police SWAT early Sunday morning. 

According to the report, at 4 a.m. Sunday, APD was called to 2070 Thurmont Rd. where a woman was being held at gunpoint and that the man who was holding her was trying to rape her. The victim managed to text a cousin who called 911. 

When police arrived, the suspect ran out of the house and fired shots at officers who then returned fire. The suspect then retreated back into the home. SWAT was called to the scene and tried to communicate with the suspect who was not repsonding. After about 4 hours of trying to contact the suspect, SWAT entered the home and found the suspect dead inside. 

The Medical Examiner is conducting an autopsy to determine whether or not the suspect died of gunshots from the police or a self-inflicted gunshot wound. His name has not yet been released. 

Two officers involved in the shooting have been placed on administrative leave, per department protocol, while the investigation into the shooting is ongoing. 

Adam D. Shaffer, 35, of Akron, has been sentenced to life in prison for raping a 6-year-old Akron boy last September. 

Back on September 3, 2016, the victim was visiting his grandmother who lives at the Saferstein Towers II apartment complex in Akron. During that visit, Shaffer befriended the boy and then took him to a park behind the apartments. That is where prosecutors say the assault happened. 

In April of this year, Shaffer plead guilty to first-degree-felony rape charges. He was sentenced Wednesday by Summit County Common Pleas Court Judge Alison McCarty.

Shaffer is not eligible for parole until after 15 years of his sentence. He will also have to register as a Tier 3 sex offender, and is required to re-register every 90 days with the court for the rest of his life. 

Billy Patterson, 19, of Akron plead guilty in Summit County Common Pleas Court Tuesday to breaking into his elderly neighbor's home and raping her. 

The charges against Patterson were 1st degree felony Rape, Aggravated Burglary, also a first degree felony, and Felonious Assault in the second degree. 

The incident in question occured back on September 24, 2016, in the middle of the night. Court documents show Patterson broke into the 71-year-old woman's home, hit her in the face multiple times, and choked here to near unconciousness. Then he proceeded to rape the victim, who she says she'd known for nearly 10 years. 

Immediately after his guilty plea, Summit County Common Pleas Court Judge Joy Malek Oldfield sentenced Patterson to 15 years in prison. He's also ordered to register as a sex offender with the local sheriff every 90 days after his release from prison. 

Summit County Sheriff's Detectives respoded to a home in Coventry Township last month after they received information of children being sexually abused.

Detectives and Summit County Children's Services found 9 kids living in the home in "deplorable" conditions. They've since been removed from that home and an investigation found that 18-year-old Cody Haupt was abusing three of the young children, including a 5-year-old boy, a 6-year-old girl, and an 8-year-old boy.

According to the Sheriff's Office report, Haupt is the half-brother of the victims. He has been arrested, charged with three felony counts of rape and more charges are pending. He's in Summit County Jail.

A 65-year-old man has been arrested and charged with raping an 85-year-old woman.

William M. Clark, 65, of Akron, was arrested after an investigation into allegations that the 85-year-old woman was sexually assaulted by an acquaintance in mid-July, according to the Summit County Sheriff's Office.

Deputies said the victim suffered several injuries including a "broken pelvic floor and torn ligaments in her hip."

Clark has been charged with two counts of rape. He was booked into the Summit County Jail.

Brock Tipping won't be getting out of jail anytime soon for murdering one woman and raping another.

Tipping was sentenced to life in prison in Summit County Common Pleas Court, and will be eligible for parole after 18 years, in the two cases - the murder of Crystal Palm and the rape of another woman.

Palm's relatives and the rape victim confronted Tipping in court.

Palm died in a fire in November 2014 on East Emerling Avenue, and was found stabbed to death.

DNA from that scene ended up connecting Tipping to a rape which happened that past October.

(Summit County Prosecutor's Office, news release) Summit County Prosecutor Sherri Bevan Walsh announced today that Summit County Common Pleas Court Judge Amy Corrigall-Jones sentenced Brock Tipping, 32, of Sanford Avenue in Akron, to Life in Prison. Tipping is eligible for parole after serving 18 years of his sentence.

On November 23, 2015, Tipping pled guilty to the following charges:

Murder – a special felony
Rape – a felony of the first degree

On November 15, 2014, crews responded to reports of a fire at a home on East Emerling Avenue in Akron. When firefighters arrived, they found the victim, 33-year-old Crystal Palm, dead. After quickly extinguishing the fire, crews determined Palm had been stabbed to death. The Summit County Medical Examiner found Palm had been stabbed eight times around the head and neck.

While investigating the murder, authorities tested DNA found at the scene. That led investigators to connect Tipping to a rape which occurred about one month earlier, on October 19, 2014.

An Akron man will spend 15 years behind bars for raping a 12-year old girl.

33-year old Brandon Harrison of Marcy Street pleaded guilty to rape and other charges in an unrelated case, including having weapons under disability, failure to comply with a court order, and non-support of dependents.

Summit County Common Pleas Court Judge Thomas Teodosio immediately sentenced Harrison to an 11 year prison term for the rape charge and another four years for the other charges.

Harrison was also labeled a Tier III sex offender.  

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(Summit County Prosecutor's Office, news release) Summit County Prosecutor Sherri Bevan Walsh announced today that Brandon Harrison, 33, of Marcy Street in Akron, pled guilty to raping a 12-year-old girl.

Harrison pled guilty to the following charge:

Rape of a Person Under the Age of 13 – a felony of the first degree

Harrison also pled guilty to the following charges in an unrelated case:

Having a Weapon Under Disability – a felony of the third degree

Failure to Comply with a Court Order – a felony of the third degree

Non-Support of Dependents – a felony of the fourth degree

Summit County Common Pleas Court Judge Thomas Teodosio immediately sentenced Harrison to a total of 15 years in prison; 11 years for the rape charge and four years for the other charges. Harrison was also designated a Tier III sex offender, meaning he will have to register with the local sheriff every 90 days for the rest of his life.

“Brandon Harrison took advantage of a young girl. I’m glad to know the community is safer with him spending a significant amount of time behind bars,” said Prosecutor Walsh.