News

November 17, 2009

Girl again testifies that man raped her last year

At first trial, Jerome Windley found guilty of corruption of minor; rape charge: hung jury.

By Sheena Delazio sdelazio@timesleader.com
Staff Writer
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WILKES-BARRE – A 13-year-old girl testified Monday that she would tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth – again – about the night that then 24-year-old Jerome Windley allegedly raped her.

The girl testified that Windley, an acquaintance of her older cousin, held her down and raped her while loud music drowned out her crying and screams for help.

Her testimony came in the first day of the second trial Windley, now 25, faces.

In June, a Luzerne County jury found Windley, of Kingston, guilty of charges of corruption of minors but was hung on charges of rape of a child, statutory sexual assault and unlawful contact with minors.

After a jury of nine men and five women was selected Monday, the trial on the greater charges began.

“He had sex with me and I didn’t want to,” the girl testified about the August 2008 incident. “I told him to stop and I was crying, and he said to give him five minutes.”

Luzerne County Assistant District Attorney Maureen Collins said in her opening statement that Windley called the girl cute and wanted to know if she would hang out with him later that day when they first met.

Collins said Windley, also known as Pee Wee, then raped the then 12-year-old girl.

She asked the jurors to find him guilty “to tell this defendant his actions were unacceptable.”

But Windley’s attorney, Charles Ross, said just because his client is African-American and has dreadlocks, that doesn’t make him guilty.

Ross said the incident wasn’t reported until two months after it allegedly happened and a doctor who examined the girl found no vaginal damage.

“That means it didn’t happen,” Ross said, adding his client will take the stand in his defense.

Two Kingston police officers testified Windley told them he didn’t rape the girl – only that they “fooled around” with sexual intercourse and he penetrated her.

According to court records, on Oct. 18, the girl’s mother reported a sexual assault involving her daughter. Through an investigation conducted by the Kingston Police Department and county detectives, it was learned that in August, the girl, her female cousin and two males were at a home on Main Street in Kingston.

That’s when Windley asked to be alone with the girl, police said. The girl told police the man, then only identified as Pee Wee, forced her to take off her clothes and have sexual intercourse.

Testimony will continue today before county President Judge Chester Muroski.

The jury is expected to begin deliberations by this afternoon.

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