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Sex offenses net former Vienna man 10 to life

WARREN — A former Vienna man was sentenced Tuesday to a 10-year-to-life prison term after pleading guilty to a variety of sex offenses, including rape of a 4-year-old girl relative.

Jeffrey Judd, 63, was labeled a Tier 3 sexual offender by Trumbull County Common Pleas Judge Andrew D. Logan after he pleaded guilty to one count of rape, one count of gross sexual imposition, one count of dissemination of matter harmful to juveniles and one count of illegal use of a minor in nudity-oriented material or performance.

If he is ever released from prison, Judd would have to register his address with the sheriff’s office four times per year for the rest of his life.

The plea hearing offset a scheduled trial that would have begun July 11.

According to the indictment, the offenses took place in January 2019 and the victim was almost 5 at the time.

Before sentencing, Judd told the judge he is “very sorry for anything that I had done.”

His attorney, John Juhasz, said he was glad the victim, who is now 8, would not have to testify at a trial.

The local case was investigated by Vienna authorities and Trumbull County Children Services after the offense came to light in a federal investigation into other charges against Judd.

Judd, who lists a Roberts Street address in Vienna, is serving a four-year sentence after being convicted in August 2019 on a federal charge of traveling across state lines with intent to engage in illegal sexual activity with a minor. He was being housed in Fort Dix Federal Prison in New Jersey before being brought to Trumbull County to face the Vienna charges.

In the federal case, Judd was arrested by FBI agents on Feb. 22, 2019, close to 21 months after he drove from Vienna to Hermitage, Pa., to meet with a 14-year-old boy, whom he had met online, purportedly to have sex. Upon driving to the Hickory High School parking lot, court documents written by Judd’s attorney state that Judd decided against the meeting and drove back to Ohio.

The boy reported the incident to a school counselor, who then notified the student’s parents, who then called Hermitage police.

The FBI eventually assumed the investigative lead in that case, and during that investigation, the sex offenses against the girl came to light, court documents state.

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