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	Former Zion Lutheran Pastor Indicted on Six Rape Counts Vindicator February 19, 2009 http://www.vindy.com/news/2009/feb/19/former-zion-lutheran-pastor-indicted-on-six-rape/?newswatch YOUNGSTOWN — Dale Giffin, who resigned as pastor of Zion Lutheran Church in Cornersburg last fall, has been indicted by a Mahoning County grand jury on six counts of rape. The indictment, returned Thursday, alleges Giffin, 59, of Topaz Circle, Canfield, raped a parishioner while she was a young adult between 1993 and 1996. The alleged offenses occurred in various places, including Giffin's office, the church basement and sacristy and in Giffin's car and residence. Giffin could not be reached for comment late Thursday. Each rape count is a first degree felony, carrying three to 10 years in prison upon conviction. That means Giffin could serve anywhere between three and 60 years in prison if he's convicted of all counts, depending whether the sentences are minimum or maximum, or in between, or concurrent or consecutive. Dawn Cantalamessa, assistant county prosecutor, said the pastor sexually abused the alleged victim beginning when she was 15. "He had groomed her from the time she was a minor," the prosecutor said. Read more in Friday's Vindicator and Vindy.com
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