Families clash outside Greensburg courthouse as Arnold child rape trial starts

Greensburg police Thursday responded to a melee that erupted in front of the Westmoreland County Courthouse to separate families involved in an ongoing rape trial.

Officials said no arrests were made and testimony in the case against Delonte Haynes continued after Common Pleas Judge Rita Hathaway questioned each juror about the fight.

Haynes’ supporters and others with the alleged victim began shouting, and the altercation became physical before police arrived, according to officials.

Haynes, 28, of Washington, D.C., is charged with the rape of a child based on allegations made by a now-15-year-old boy who claimed he was repeatedly sexually assaulted when he lived in Arnold in the early 2010s.

Assistant District Attorney Rebecca Calisti said Haynes preyed upon the child, who was 8 to 10 years old at the time.

Calisti said Haynes on multiple occasions showed the child pornography then would force the boy to have sex. The teen disclosed the allegations to his mother years later, prosecutors said.

“This is a man who took advantage of a young boy to satisfy his own sexual desires,” Calisti said.

Haynes is charged with four felony offenses: rape of a child, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, indecent assault and corruption of minors.

Haynes this week rejected a plea bargain in which he would have been sentenced to 15 to 30 years in prison. Calisti said she will seek a 100-year mandatory minimum sentence against Haynes if he is convicted at trial of all four offenses.

Haynes served a four-month jail sentence in 2015 for a conviction to a sexual offense in Washington, D.C., prosecutors said.

Assistant Public Defender Michael Garofalo told jurors there is not enough evidence to support the child’s allegations.

“It’s a story,” Garofalo said of the boy’s accusations. “She (Calisti) keeps calling the child a victim. Uh, no. That’s your decision.”

Haynes’ trial will continue Friday.