WARREN - Instead of a more routine request of a prison release at a parole hearing, a local convicted child rapist is seeking a formal commutation and executive clemency from the governor.
An application for the clemency by Anthony Mallon was recently received in the Trumbull County Prosecutor's Office. And the office, through assistant county prosecutor Lu- Wayne Annos, is opposing the unorthodox move.
Mallon, 59, who is serving a 10-to-25-year sentence in Grafton Correctional Institution, was turned down for release at a parole hearing in 2008 and was told his next hearing is in May 2013.
Mallon was 42 years old and working at a car wash when he was secretly indicted here for the repeated rape and felonious sexual penetration of a 10-year-old Warren girl over a two-month period when he was babysitting her.
Mallon was living at addresses on Clay Street and Wood Street in Niles at the time, but the attacks on the girl he knew occurred at her home in the fall of 1995.
In one of the attacks Annos said, '' when the girl started to cry because of the pain he put tape over her mouth to muffle her crying.''
Eventually, Annos said, the girl told her mother and the matter was reported to Warren police who investigated along with Children Services.
''It should be noted that not only did the victim require medical and psychological treatment after these instances of sexual molestation, but the victim's 11-year-old brother likewise required therapy because he was consumed with guilt for not intervening to protect his little sister,'' Annos said.
Mallon was indicted on three counts of rape that carried a potential life sentence since the girl was younger than 13. He also faced the charge of felonious sexual penetration and three counts of gross sexual imposition.
The imposition charges along with the life sentence specifications that alleged force or threat of force were dismissed in exchange for Mallon's guilty plea. Mallon's attorney pointed out to the judge that the plea deal was struck to spare any further harm to the child victim.
''I'm writing to voice my unqualified objection to a grant of commutation to Anthony Mallon. Despite his new-found 'remorse' or 'positive institutional adjustment,' this office views his 10-to-25-year sentence as fair,'' Annos said in a letter to the Ohio Parole Board, which forwards a recommendation to Gov John Kasich's office.
''I strongly urge this board to render an unfavorable recommendation to (the governor). To afford Mallon a hearing on this application would be a shameless waste of resources and taxpayer dollars. To recommend extraordinary relief of a commutation to this known child rapist would be the height of irresponsibility and would show a reckless disregard for the welfare and security of the community at large,'' Annos wrote.