Suspect in Ravenna rape case to face accuser in court

A Stow man accused of raping a 9-year-old girl while he lived in Ravenna more than four years ago will face his accuser in court.

During her opening statement Tuesday in the Portage County Common Pleas Courtroom of Judge Becky Doherty, prosecutor Mary Beth Kiah told the jury that the victim, now 15, will testify during the trial of 42-year-old Curtis L. Ransom.

"She will tell you she was in a dark place," said Kiah.

Vincent Pacetti, Ransom's attorney, said, "The notion that Curtis Ransom is a child rapist is preposterous."

A grand jury indicted Ransom on a single count of first-degree felony rape.

Kiah said the girl reported the alleged assault to a friend when she was 11. The friend eventually told his mother, who told the girl's mother. The mother then called police.

"This is something she lived with for a couple of years before she found the courage and strength to tell someone," Kiah said. "She went through something traumatic, and we're going to make her live through this again."

Kiah said expert testimony will show it's not uncommon for child sexual assault victims to wait before reporting a crime.

Kiah acknowledged that there are no eyewitnesses to an assault, and because of the passage of time, the girl could not provide a precise date, and there is no physical evidence. But Kiah said the girl's testimony should be compelling enough to convict Ransom.

"All you have to do is believe her story," she said.

Pacetti said the allegation against Ransom lacks credibility. He said that when the alleged assault took place, the girl was sleeping over at Ransom's home, but there would be multiple other children there as well, squeezed together on the living room floor as they slept.

Pacetti said this makes the contention that Ransom raped the girl unlikely.

"I will submit it's not even close to reasonable," he said.

Pacetti alleged the girl has made inconsistent statements about what happened and when. He also said that the girl's family has a bias against Ransom that predates the allegations.

Pacetti said Ransom did not rape the girl.

"I don't have the burden of proof, but by the time this trial is over, I will have proven it," he said.

Over the course of the case, the time period during which Ransom allegedly raped the girl has changed.

According to a grand jury indictment from April 2022, the alleged offense was committed between Sept. 1 and Nov. 1, 2019, when the girl was 10. An amended indictment filed in January 2023 expanded the date range to Feb. 1, 2020, after the girl turned 11.

According to a notice of alibi Pacetti filed this past January, Ransom and his family moved from the Sapp Road address where the alleged rape took place to another Ravenna address on around Nov. 1, 2019. A second amended indictment then was filed, and the date range was amended again to Nov. 1, 2018 to Jan. 14, 2019, when the girl was 9. It also specified that the girl was younger than 10.

In a supplemental notice of alibi, Pacetti wrote that Ransom was staying with his parents at a different Ravenna address than the one on Sapp Road "for a significant portion of said alleged time period."

Pacetti wrote that Ransom could not specify exactly when he lived with his parents.

Reporter Jeff Saunders can be reached at jsaunders@recordpub.com.

This article originally appeared on Record-Courier: Suspect in Ravenna rape case to face accuser in court