Toledo man gets 1 year for March jail rape

5/25/2006

A Toledo man entered into a plea agreement and was sentenced yesterday in Lucas County Common Pleas Court to one year in prison for sexually assaulting an 18-year-old inmate in the county jail.

Melvin Lee Cooper, 49, pleaded no contest to one count of rape and was found guilty by Judge James Bates for the attack on the teenager on March 25 in a shower stall. At the time, Cooper was being held in the jail for misdemeanor offenses.

The judge also classified him as a sexually oriented offender.