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Bond doubled for Paris rape: Now $2 million for suspect

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Dave O'Brien
February 9, 2010

 

By Dave O’Brien

Record-Courier staff writer

A recently-released convicted felon prosecutors allege broke into a victim’s house on Griffith Road in Paris, assaulting her physically and sexually and preventing her from leaving in the process, was arraigned Monday and jailed on $2 million bond.

Portage County Common Pleas Court Judge Laurie Pittman doubled the original $1 million bond set on Scott A. Birch, 38, with a last known address in Paris. The new bond is based on a seven-count Portage County grand jury indictment filed Feb. 4, charging Birch with four counts of rape and one count each of aggravated burglary, felonious assault and kidnapping. 

Except for the second-degree felonious assault, all the indicted charges are first-degree felonies. Birch originally was arrested Jan. 28. 

Assistant Portage County Public Defender David Sed told Pittman that Birch recently was released from a three-year prison term and ordered to live at his previous address. Birch only climbed into the residence through a window because he didn’t have a key, Sed said, calling the alleged victim’s story into question. 

Sed also called Birch’s original $1 million bond “excessive.” Pittman disagreed.

“Well, it’s about to become more excessive,” she said, doubling the original figure and ordering Birch to have no contact, directly or indirectly, with the complaining witness. 

Birch was released Nov. 6, 2009 from the Lebanon Correctional Institution after serving slightly more than three years on a 2006 conviction for burglary and attempted felonious assault in Tuscarawas County, according to the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections. 

Birch also has prior convictions for felony domestic violence in 1999 and 2001, according to the Portage County Prosecutor’s Office. 

A pre-trial hearing was set for March 26, and a jury trial for March 30. 

 




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