Rape defendant will get new trial

A man found guilty of multiple charges of rape and one charge of gross sexual imposition in Wood County Common Pleas Court has had his conviction overturned.
The Ohio Sixth District Court of Appeals ruled last week the defendant, Gregory Kamer, Jr., 36, deserved a new trial after the common pleas court didn’t follow rules of evidence when it allowed “numerous incriminating statements through hearsay testimony.”
The prosecution called seven witnesses to testify, including the victim, who was 5-years-old at the time of the alleged offenses; the girl’s mother; a social worker; a Lake Township police officer; a child abuse investigator from the Wood County Department of Job and Family Services; a sexual assault nurse examiner, and Kamer’s former stepdaughter.
The appeals court cited the testimony of the former stepdaughter and the police officer and child abuse investigator in its decision to rule it prejudicial and hearsay. Also, the prosecution failed to show that the trial court’s errors in admitting the testimony “were harmless beyond a reasonable doubt,” the appeals court ruled.
Kamer and the girl’s mother were living together at a motel where the mother worked at the time of the offenses.
He was indicted in November 2019 on eight counts of rape, two counts of gross sexual imposition, and two counts of disseminating matter harmful to juveniles.
The indictments alleged the offenses occurred from approximately Dec. 1, 2018 to February 2019 and from March 1, 2019 to July 29, 2019.
Kamer was found guilty of four rape counts and one count of gross sexual imposition. He was sentenced to life imprisonment for each rape conviction and 30 months for the gross sexual imposition conviction. All five sentences were to be served consecutively.
He was acquitted of the four rape offenses and one gross sexual imposition offense that allegedly took place between Dec. 1, 2018 and Feb. 28, 2019.