Appeals ruling shortens man's prison sentence for raping girl in Ravenna
More than a year after a former Akron man was sentenced for raping a girl in Ravenna when she was as younger than 10, he has been resentenced by order of an appeals court.
Judge Becky Doherty sentenced Nicholas J. Taugner, 45, in Portage County Court of Common Pleas on Wednesday to serve 11 years in prison. Taugner has also been determined to be a Tier III sex offender, which will require him to register with the sheriff of any county he lives, works or goes to school in every 90 days for the rest of his life.
According to a grand jury indictment, filed in February 2019, Taugner sexually assaulted the girl between May 2016, when the girl was 7, and July 2018, when she was 9.
An investigation began after Portage County Job and Family Services contacted Ravenna police. According to a police report, the girl had previously known Taugner.
Taugner pleaded guilty to first-degree felony rape in April 2022. In a plea deal, two lesser felony charges in the indictment were dismissed. Doherty sentenced him in July 2022 to an indefinite 11 to 16 1/2 years in prison.
However, Taugner appealed the sentence to the Ohio 11th District Court of Appeals, which issued a unanimous opinion in June reversing Doherty's sentence and ordering a resentening. According to the opinion, this was due to the state law that allows indefinite sentences for some serious offenses not going into effect until March 2019.
The appellate court ruled that since Taugner's offenses took place prior to that time, he should only have been sentenced to a definite term of up to a maximum of 11 years.
Taugner is currently incarcerated in the Lake Erie Correctional Institution in Ashtabula County, according to the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction.
Reporter Jeff Saunders can be reached at jsaunders@recordpub.com.
This article originally appeared on Record-Courier: Akron man resentenced in rape of girl in Ravenna following appeal
