Court Report: Michigan man indicted in 2013 homecoming rape

A Michigan man was arraigned in the Athens County Court of Common Pleas this Wednesday in connection to several cases that occurred during Ohio University’s Homecoming in 2013.Dedrick Peterson, of Ann Arbor, Mich., was indicted this week on six counts of rape, three third-degree felony counts of sexual battery and one count for aggravated burglary.According to the Athens County Prosecutor’s website, Peterson was arrested in Michigan on October 7, which resulted in additional DNA testing obtained by the Ohio Attorney General’s Bureau of Criminal Investigation in collaboration with the Prosecutor’s Office.The results of his arraignment have not yet been processed. His trial is set to start in December.Also this week, an Athens man was sentenced on Tuesday for one felony count of grand theft and one felony count of forgery, both felonies of the fourth degree.Jason Blair pled guilty in the Athens County Court of Common Pleas after receiving a plea agreement consisting of five years community control, formally known as probation, with an underlying prison sentence of 36 months.Blair is required to enter a community-based correctional facility and pay fines totaling $2,500 at a minimum rate of $605 a month. Failure to comply results in the underlying sentence.From July 23, 2011 to July 31, 2013, Blair stole a total of $14,520 from Central Mutual Insurance Company, the insurer of Blair’s employer Class Car Wash, after altering time cards, tip reports and other financial transactions.Another Athens man, Stephen Barnhart, was also sentenced Tuesday in an unrelated case for one count of theft.Barnhart pleaded guilty and accepted a plea deal of community control with an underlying sentence of 12 months. Blair must also repay the damages totaling $1,990.In another case last week, a man faced sentencing in connection to three counts of aggravated trafficking of drugs, a felony of the third degree.Dustin Green faced a possible nine years in jail after pleading guilty to the three counts of selling a drug known as 4-MEC, all of which took place on three separate dates and in the vicinity of a school.Green accepted a plea deal consisting of five years community control with an underlying sentence of four years in jail and six-month license suspension. It was also recommended the defendant enter a Community Based Correctional Facility pending an investigation into prior convictions also known as a Pretence Investigation.