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BARNESVILLE -- An area man is awaiting arraignment on numerous charges, many involving a relationship that reportedly began when the victim was 16 and living in another state and allegedly turned abusive after she moved to the area at age 18.
Alan Harris was arrested and was indicted this week by a Belmont County grand jury and will appear for arraignment Thursday.
Harris, 38, of South Chestnut Street, Barnesville faces four charges of domestic violence, five counts of illegal use of a minor in nudity-oriented material, and five counts of rape. Barnesville Police Chief Rocky Sirianni said a domestic violence call reportedly yielded evidence of more serious charges.
"In March of this year, there was a domestic violence incident involving Alan Harris and his live-in partner. During that arrest, there were some allegations made that there may be some content on some of Alan's devices. We were able to secure a search warrant for these devices, and we did recover or reveal content that led to the pandering obscenities offenses, which is essentially child pornography.
"The rape offenses, that comes from allegations made by his live-in partner that we then uncovered evidence on the devices as well that corroborated the victim's statements with regards to at least one rape offense, and then the victim had disclosed other alleged rape events in a conversation with the prosecutor's office," he said.
The rapes are alleged to have occurred at Harris' residence. Sirianni described other elements of the case.
"They had actually met when she was 16 and he was 31. She was living in Connecticut and they had met each other online, and when she turned 18 he moved her into Barnesville from Connecticut," he said. "There was a lot of pretty gruesome content on the devices. We presented this case to the grand jury and then received an indictment on those charges."
Belmont County Prosecutor Kevin Flanagan was contacted for comment.
"What Chief Sirianni and the Barnesville Police Department submitted to us was forwarded to the Belmont County grand jury. After hearing the evidence presented, the grand jury returned the indictments that they did. We will now endeavor to prosecute the charges listed in the indictment."
Flanagan added that his office is not considering this a trafficking case at this juncture.