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A Clymer man has been charged with second-degree rape and endangering the welfare of a child.
On Thursday, an arrest warrant was issued by Busti Town Court after a Lakewood-Busti police investigation. James S. Miller, 30, of Clymer allegedly engaged in sexual contact with a female under the age of 15 years old in the summer of 2023. Miller was arrested on the warrant and taken to the Chautauqua County Jail for centralized arraignment and held on bail.
In New York state, second-degree rape by definition involves someone who is over the age of 18 engaging in sexual contact with someone less than 15 years of age or with someone who is mentally incapacitated. The law does include an age proximity defense, also known as a Romeo and Juliet defense, that allows defense attorneys to mkae the case that the defendant was less than 4 years older than the victim at the time of the act. The defendant bears the burden of proving this by a preponderance of the evidence.
Conviction on a charge of second-degree rape can lead to a sentence of between 2 to 7 years in state prison, up to 10 years of probation, fines and court surcharges and a mandatory sex offender registration for a minimum of 20 years up to life.
According to the state Division of Criminal Justice Services, rape charges filed in Chautauqua County reached a 20-year high at 96 in 2023 before dropping to 69 reported cases in 2024 and 32 in 2025. The two-year decrease represents a 54% decrease in rape charges. There were 16 rape charges filed in Chautauqua County for the first three months of 2026, which represents the most recent reporting through the state Division of Criminal Justice Services. Eleven of those cases were filed in Jamestown, with three in Ellicott and two each by the Chautauqua County Sheriff’s Office and New York State Police.