Nurse and BCI agent testify against Marion city councilman accused of rape

MARION – A Marion Municipal Court judge ruled Thursday that a city councilman must stand trial accused of raping a 13-year-old girl after a nurse testified at a preliminary hearing that an examination of the girl for sexual abuse found evidence “consistent with her testimony.”

Marion City Councilman Ayers Ratliff was arrested on May 20 on a rape charge. The young woman had texted a friend the night before saying Ratliff had raped her, witnesses testified during Ratliff’s preliminary hearing Thursday. The friend told staff at her middle school, and a police investigation was launched. Evidence was collected at Ratliff’s home and the girl was subjected to a three-hour sexual assault exam. Lab results for much of the evidence have yet to be evaluated.

Released on $500,000 bail, Ratliff resumed his duties Tuesday night at a Marion City Council meeting. The charges against him were not mentioned by other council members, city officials or citizens who came to speak on other business. Speaking to The Dispatch after the meeting, other city council members and Marion Mayor Bill Collins said they were unaware of any plans to remove Ratliff from office and that such a move may not be legally possible.

Ratliff’s lawyers have said the allegations against him are false and that he will fight any move to remove him from the council. Ratliff is a Democrat who was first elected in 2005.

Marion County Prosecutor Ray Grogan called a nurse, Marion Police Chief Jay McDonald and an Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation (BCI) agent who helped secure the crime scene to testify against Ratliff at the preliminary hearing.

The girl and her mother were subpoenaed to testify at the hearing, but ultimately neither of them spoke or appeared in the courtroom.

Sylvia Peyton, a sex crimes emergency nurse (SANE) at OhioHealth Marion General Hospital, said the girl told her during the examination that Ratliff put his hands under her shirt and then raped her on the evening of April 19. When asked if he had done this in the past, the nurse said the girl reported Ratliff had groped her and slapped her on the buttocks in recent years.

The girl told Peyton that she initially tried to fight Ratliff off but was overpowered.

Peyton said an examination of the girl revealed signs of physical abrasion consistent with the teen’s description of the incident. When Ratliff’s attorney asked if what she saw could have been caused by other factors, Peyton said there could have been other causes, such as rough wiping of the area.

BCI Special Agent David Hammond said investigators seized several items of clothing as evidence after the items glowed under ultraviolet light, indicating the presence of bodily fluids. Hammond said a pair of underpants that matched the description of the underpants the girl was said to have worn that night were stained with blood. Peyton had said the girl was not menstruating at the time of her examination.

A lawyer for Ratliff argued that none of the evidence presented Thursday conclusively proved that Ratliff raped the girl and that the prosecution’s charges were based solely “on the testimony of a 13-year-old girl.”

After hearing the evidence, Marion Municipal Court Judge Teresa L. Ballinger ordered Ratliff’s case transferred to Marion County District Court, where no trial date has been set.

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“My uncle was Bishop Eamonn Casey. He raped me when I was five years old – and continued for years.”