Joshua Sills has pretrial hearing in rape case
CAMBRIDGE − A preliminary pretrial hearing was held Thursday in Guernsey County Common Pleas Court for a professional football player accused of rape.
Joshua M. Sills, 25, originally from Sarahsville, was indicted with one count of rape and one count of kidnapping, both first-degree felonies, in February from an incident in December 2019. Sills is accused of forcing a woman to engage in non-consensual sexual activity. Sills is out of jail on a $25,000 bond.
Sills is an offensive lineman who was signed as an undrafted free agent in 2022 by the Philadelphia Eagles. He played college football at West Virginia University for four years before transferring for a fifth year at Oklahoma State University.
Sills only appeared in one game as a reserve this past season for the Eagles. The team lost Super Bowl LVII on Feb. 12 to the Kansas City Chiefs by the score of 38 to 35. When the indictment was issued, the Eagles released a statement saying it was aware of the legal matter.
Sills is being represented by Michael Connick of Zanesville. The prosecution of the case is being handled by the Ohio Attorney General office's special prosecutions section. Sills was present in court for the hearing, which was focused on setting dates in the case.
The state has until March 31 to provide discovery in the case. The defense has until May 22. Discovery is where each side provides to the other evidence they attend to use at trial. Judge Daniel G. Padden said he always starts discovery with the state as the burden of proof lies with it in any criminal case.
A trial date was set for 8:30 a.m. June 19. The trial is estimated to go five days. The prosecution said they plan to call less than 10 witnesses. The defense said if they would call any witnesses, it would be from four to seven. There was no indication if Sills would take the stand on his own behalf.
Padden mentioned that Sills had met with pretrial officers and that he was adhering to all the mandates of his bond.
This article originally appeared on The Daily Jeffersonian: Joshua Sills has pretrial hearing in rape case
