2 men charged in rape cases

Two Butler men have been arrested and charged in separate rape cases.

City police arrested James Earl George, 42, Friday after a 16-year-old girl accused George of raping her at his West North Street apartment that night. George is a registered sex offender, having been convicted of aggravated indecent assault in 1990, according to the state's Megan's Law Web site.

Police said the girl went to the address to visit a friend. George is accused of asking her to help with a computer problem, holding a pellet or BB pistol to the girl's head and threatening to kill her police said. He is accused of then placing several unknown pills in the girl's mouth, which she did not swallow, assaulting her and forcing her to clean herself before leaving, police said.

George was arrested at his apartment and charged with two counts of rape, sexual assault, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, unlawful restraint and terroristic threats. He was being held in the Butler County Prison in lieu of $150,000 bail.

In a separate case, state police charged John Rose, 37, of Butler, with two counts each of rape, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, aggravated indecent assault, statutory sexual assault and indecent assault.

Rose is accused of assaulting a girl when she was 10 years old in 2000 and again in 2004 when she was 13. The alleged incidents took place at the Peter Rabbit Trailer Court in Brady and at a location on Third Street in Butler, state police said.

Rose was placed in the county prison Monday in lieu of $75,000 bail.