Friday, December 17, 1999
Rapist should stay in prison, prosecutor says
Man gets life; parole possible
BY TERRY FLYNN
The Cincinnati Enquirer
NEWPORT — Franklin Roark Jr. was sentenced to life in prison Thursday after being convicted of robbery, burglary and sexual assault.
Assistant Commonwealth Attorney Jack Porter said he will do his best to see that Mr. Roark stays in jail.
“This is a case of great importance, I believe,” Mr. Porter said Thursday. “I'll draft a letter to the parole board, to be placed in (Mr. Roark's) file, where it will follow him for the next 12 years. I'll outline a number of things, including his criminal history, and emphasize that he should not be released.
“This is someone who should spend the rest of his life in jail.”
Mr. Roark, 44, has been in and out of prison since 1975, when he was first convicted of rape in Boone County. He was later convicted of rape and attempted rape in Kenton County, burglary in Boone County and rape, sodomy, burglary and robbery in Trimble County.
A jury in Campbell Circuit Judge William Wehr's court convicted Mr. Roark on the charges related to break-ins that occurred in November and December of 1997, including one incident where he allegedly robbed and assaulted a woman in her home.
Kentucky's law relating to these charges changed in 1998 and permitted judges to give sentences of life without parole. But because the offenses for which Mr. Roark was convicted occurred prior to the change in the law, he is eligible for parole after 12 years in prison.
He is scheduled to go on trial in Boone County in February on a rape charge in an attack on a woman in her Burlington home.
He is under investigation by police for a rape in Kenton County, while a rape charge against him in Pendleton County was dismissed.
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