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YOUNGSTOWN -- The prosecution and defense presented their opening statements Monday afternoon in the trial of Todd Perkins after spending most of the day selecting a jury.
Perkins, 58, is charged with rape and gross sexual imposition, and is accused of sexually assaulting at least one young girl related to him in 2015. Perkins was freed from prison by an appeals court ruling after being convicted of two child rapes, and his trial was set to begin in December.
Perkins pleaded guilty to two child rapes in May 2021 before Mahoning County Common Pleas Court Judge Maureen Sweeney and was sentenced to 15 years to life in prison. But his lawyers filed an appeal, saying Sweeney should have agreed to separate the cases involving the two children because a jury hearing testimony about both alleged victims "would infer (Perkins') guilt from one case to the other," according to the ruling.
The 7th District Court of Appeals ruled in August 2022 in Perkins' favor, noting his contention that he only entered a guilty plea in his case because Sweeney refused to separate the allegations into two trials. It added that Perkins maintained he did not commit any of the offenses.
The case that began Monday will focus solely on the case of a girl who was 4 years old at the time of the alleged offenses. The Mahoning County Prosecutor's office and defense attorneys said the trial will be short, and the state is only expected to call five witnesses, including the girl -- now 11 -- and her mother. Defense attorneys John Juhasz and Lynn Maro have not said whether they will call any witnesses. During jury questioning, they repeatedly asked prospective jurors whether they would hold it against Perkins if he did not testify, adding that the burden of proof lies solely with the prosecution.
When the prosecution opened its case, attorney Daniel Yozwiak described an incident in which the girl told her mother that she did not like Perkins. When asked why, the girl allegedly described graphic details of sexual assault and said "he won't stop."
Yozwiak said the state intends to call as witness a counselor from the Akron Children's Hospital Child Advocacy Center, to whom the girl described the offenses after her mother filed charges against Perkins.
Juhasz told the jury his team cannot prove a negative, and that the jury needs to listen not only to the testimony of the state's witnesses but must pay attention to the details and hear all evidence before reaching any conclusions.
"There is no evidence, no DNA, no video, there is only what a 4-year-old girl said," he said. "You have to go through this whole thing assuming that these charges are not true."