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LISBON -- A new status conference in the alleged rape case against an East Palestine man has been scheduled for 2:20 p.m. Friday at the request of his defense attorney.
James E. Browne, 63, East Clark Avenue, appeared in a wheelchair Monday in Columbiana County Common Pleas Court before Judge Megan Bickerton, escorted by sheriff's deputies and accompanied by his attorney Joe King.
King told the judge the case is not resolved, but asked for another status conference to be held later this week. He said he talked to his client briefly before the hearing. A jury trial remains on the schedule for Aug. 8.
County Assistant Prosecutor Tammie Riley Jones was there representing the state, along with Assistant Prosecutors Steve Yacovone and Alec Beech.
Browne was served with the secret indictment in the case in January, charged with rape, a first-degree felony, and gross sexual imposition, a third-degree felony. According to the indictment, the alleged rape and sexual contact involved a 6-year-old victim from Oct. 1, 1996 to Dec 31, 1998.
Browne is currently serving a three-year term in prison after being sentenced May 23, 2022 on charges of importuning and two counts of disseminating matter harmful to juveniles. The charges involved him soliciting sexual activity from a law enforcement officer he believed to be 12 years old during a sex for hire sting April 10 and 11 in 2019 and sending that person obscene materials.
His $50,000 cash or surety bond was continued. He was transported to the county from Belmont Correctional Institution in St. Clairsville.