According to Oneida County Sheriff’s Office Chief Deputy…

According to Oneida County Sheriff’s Office Chief Deputy Derrick O'Meara, who is the Director of the Oneida County Child Advocacy Center, a City of Rome man has been arrested for Rape in the first degree, (a class B Felony).

In late June of 2020 members of the Rome Police Department responded to a dispute outside a residence in the City of Rome. During the course of that investigation it was learned that a home invasion had occurred which resulted in the sexual assault of a 12 year old female child. Sheriff’s Investigator Nicholas Dean was assigned to this case on June 30, 2020 and during the course of the investigation, the suspect in this case wasidentified as 33 year old Tarkeem Jones, of the City of Rome.

Through collaborative efforts on the part of members of the City of Utica Police Department, the City of Rome Police Department and the Oneida County Sheriff’s Office, Jones was located and arrested in the City of Utica on August 12, 2020, by members of the Oneida County Sheriff’s Office Warrants Division and the New York/New Jersey Regional Fugitive Task Force.

Jones was arraigned in the City of Rome Court and remanded to the Oneida County Jail with no bail.

Services are being offered to the child by Oneida County Child Protective Services and the Child Advocacy Center.