The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Victim-blaming child rapist’s appeal hearing scheduled
The case of a convicted rapist who attempted to blame his pre-teen victim at sentencing is scheduled to be heard before a three-judge appellate panel Aug. 22 in Lake County Common Pleas Court.
James Craig, 39, formerly of South Charleston, West Virginia, is currently housed at Richland Correctional Institution in Mansfield.
A Lake County jury found him guilty of three counts of rape, three counts of gross sexual imposition and one count each of importuning and pandering obscenity involving a minor for molesting the victim about 10 times in 2014 and 2015, according to prosecutors.
Craig was acquitted of two other pandering charges and one importuning count.
Judge Vincent A. Culotta sentenced Craig to the maximum
penalty of life in prison with parole eligibility after 91 ½ years in October 2016.
The 12-year-old girl testified he would bait her with doughnuts and sweets. Sheriff’s deputies arrested Craig after the victim told her grandmother about the abuse.
Craig made a 100-minute statement at sentencing claiming the girl made up the allegations.
“I’ve spent the last 451 days in jail for a crime I did not commit,” he told the girl. “I didn’t do anything to anybody. I really forgive you for lying about me. You can tell the truth now. I’m not even mad. I only need a hug. Your words alone are holding me in this prison. Your words alone will set me free. I really do forgive you. I’ll be sitting in prison every day, waiting for you to tell the truth.”
The victim stood by her testimony after listening to his words, and called him the liar.
The judge called Craig’s victim-blaming statement even more evidence that proves he’s a “monster.”
Craig argued that he had no idea how a CD of child pornography that was discovered in a locked safe at his then-home got there.
Craig and the victim were not strangers. Craig said he discovered one of the girl’s relatives is a selfproclaimed “witch or Satanist,” which may have influenced the girl to make up the rapes.
At sentencing, he warned the judge that he would one day prevail in his appeal.
“I know you’re getting ready to sentence me to life in prison for a crime I didn’t commit. But one day, you’re gonna get a phone call saying, ‘Mr. Culotta, you’re gonna have to overturn the case because this didn’t happen,’ “Craig said.