Guilty verdict in rape case

WEST CHESTER >> The jury hearing the case of a Lebanon County man accused of raping a Downingtown woman he met while working for a local heating and air conditioning company rejected the man’s contention that the sex between them was consensual.

Key in their decision to find him guilty of a series of charges was an emotional telephone call recorded by police investigators between the defendant, Dominic John Fratangeli, and the victim, in which she pressed him on his assault.

“You raped me, don’t you know that?” asked the woman during the call, which took place the day following their encounter.

“Please, please, can you forgive me?” Fratangeli responded,

his voice choking with emotion. “Please I’m sorry.”

“Being sorry doesn’t cut it,” the woman, whose name is being withheld by the Daily Local News because of the nature of the crime, said. “You shouldn’t have done that.”

“I am sorry,” Fratangeli continued to say, over and over again. “I am begging you with everything I have. I’m sorry. Please.”

But when the 38-yearold divorced father of one took the stand in his own defense on Wednesday, he told the jury of six men and six women that the woman had agreed to have sex with him, and never asked him to stop or said “no,” as she contended in her own testimony that she did.

The jury deliberated in Common Pleas Court Judge Jacqueline Carroll Cody’s courtroom for about eight hours over two days before returning with their verdict on Thursday afternoon. Fratangeli was found guilty of rape by forcible compulsion, a first degree felony punishable by a prison term of 10 to 20 years, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, aggravated indecent assault, and sexual assault. He was acquitted on the charge of indecent assault.

Fratangeli remains free on bail pending his sentencing before Cody later this year.

The case was investigated by Downingtown Detective Paul A. Troutman and Officer Brandon Siebert, and was prosecuted by Assistant District Attorneys Kate Wright and Nichole Morley. Fratangeli was represented by Assistant Public Defenders Grant Bloomdahl and Ellen Koopman.

The Daily Local News does not disclose the names of the victims of alleged sexual assaults unless they give their permission.

According to the testimony during the two-day trial and court records, Downingtown police were called to the emergency room at Paoli Hospital, where the woman had undergone a sexual assault nursing exam. There, she told Seibert that Fratangeli had forced himself on her while they were alone together in her home on the east side of the borough near the Victory Brewing Company.

She said that she had met Fratangeli on Aug. 9, 2018, while he was working as accounts manager for Mattioni Plumbing, Heating and Cooling and she was trying to cancel an appointment for her home with the company. They exchanged emails, and Fratangeli asked if he could send her text updates.

The following day, Fratangeli began sending text messages to the woman, and she responded. She acknowledged that the texts became sexual in nature. She said they agreed to meet on Aug. 15, but that she told Fratangeli that she was not going to have sex with him.

He arranged a meeting with her that afternoon in the parking lot of the Target store in Uwchlan. When she arrived, he got into her car and immediately started kissing her and fondling her, she told the police officer. She said she told him to stop, and he asked whether they could go to her home. When she said no, “because his behavior was bad,” he promised to be good, according to the arrest affidavit. She agreed to let him come to her house.

Once there, they went to a living room and sat together on the couch. She said that that Fratangeli became aggressive and advanced on her, but that she again told him no. He continued, and pulled off her pants, performing oral sex on her as she told him to stop and go away, according to the complaint.

At some point, he dragged the woman onto the floor of the living and lay on top of her, as he had sexual intercourse with her. Afterward, he went to the kitchen and cleaned himself with paper towels before leaving abruptly.

After reporting the incident to police, the woman and Troutman arranged to record a phone call to Fratangeli with the assistance of the Chester County Detectives on Aug. 16, 2018. It was that call that the jury heard on Wednesday.

The call started with small talk about Fratangeli’s father, who was in the hospital, and whether the woman wanted to reschedule her appointment with his company, but soon shifted to their encounter the day before.

“Can we talk about yesterday?” the woman asked. “I am really shaken up. That was so bad.”

“I know it was so bad,” he responded. “Can we start over?”

When the woman pressed him, Fratangeli said that he thought she was “joking” when she told him to stop. “I thought you wanted it,” he said. “I’m sorry.”

“That was not consensual,” the woman told him.

Fratangeli started sobbing over the phone and again said he was “horribly sorry.”

“I hear you, Dominic,” the woman said before ending the call. “I’ve got to go.”

After the call ended but the recorder continued to run, Troutman could be heard telling the woman that, “It couldn’t have gone any better. I know it was really tough on you.”