SIDNEY – A Sidney man was convicted on two counts of rape against a girl who at the time was between the ages of 13 and 15 Thursday afternoon in Shelby County Common Pleas Court.
Joshua L. Scott, 39, was charged with two counts of rape, which according to prosecutors occurred between Jan. 1, 2004, and April 27, 2008. Both counts are first degree felonies.
The woman, whom the Sidney Daily News isn’t identifying, testified against Scott during Thursday’s jury trial.
The first time she was raped, she said, she was walking home from school when Scott asked her to babysit for him. When they arrived at his home, Scott forced her onto his couch and raped her, she said.
The second time she was raped, the woman said, Scott followed her into the shower at the house where she lived and raped her.
The woman said she tried to tell her parents about the assaults, but they didn’t believe her because of their relationship to Scott. Along with the fear of not being believed, the woman said she was afraid to come forward with her account because Scott threatened her family and she was afraid it could hurt her reputation.
The rape accusations came to light in 2019 during a separate investigation, Sidney Police Department Capt. Jerry Tangeman testified. After hearing about the allegations, he approached the woman, and she then agreed to cooperate with police.
“Sadly that occurs a lot,” Tangeman said of the allegations going unreported for more than a decade.
Because of the time elapsed since the assaults, no physical evidence was available during the trial.
Laura Waymire, Scott’s attorney, said he and the woman had a consensual sexual relationship when the woman was approximately 18 years old. She was married at the time, Waymire said, and made up the rape allegations to cover up her infidelity.
“None of it adds up because it’s not true,” said Waymire, who also sought to discredit the woman’s account because of inconsistencies in the timeline she offered about the assaults.
Prosecutor Tim Sell said the woman had no reason to make up any allegations against Scott. If she was trying to hide an affair, she simply could have denied everything when Tangeman approached her, Sell said.
“She had no reason to come forward and cooperate with the detectives,” the prosecutor said. “She had no reason to come and testify to you if what she said wasn’t true. What possibly would be the rationale to subject herself to this sort of thing if it wasn’t true?”
The jury initially wasn’t able to come to a consensus about the charges. However, after seeking more guidance from Judge James Stevenson, they unanimously found Scott guilty on both counts.
The next step in the case is a presentence investigation. Scott’s bond was continued until then.
