Global Courant
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Two years after a former Gettysburg College student finally saw charges filed for on-campus sexual assault in 2013, the man suspected of sending her a Facebook post that read: So I raped you”, continues to run.
Shannon Keeler, 28, and her lawyers wonder how Ian T Cleary has avoided capture at a time when people are tracked by their cell phones, internet connections, security cameras and credit card purchases. Investigators, led by the US Marshals Service, believe the 30-year-old from Silicon Valley is likely overseas and on his way.
“How does he support himself financially? How can he travel abroad without detection? Did he assume a false identity?” asked Andrea Levy, legal director for the Pennsylvania Coalition Against Rape, who represents Keeler. “Who will help him?”
Keeler was sexually assaulted on a snowy December night in her dorm room. She texted friends for help even before he fled, and went to the police the same day.
For years, local officials have rejected her pleas to press charges, even after she showed them the startling Facebook posts she discovered in 2020. reverse course weeks after she went public in an Associated Press story which explored the reluctance of local agencies to prosecute assaults on campus.
For Keeler, the years of limbo have been painful, even as she moves on with her life and career. She works for a software company and is getting married this fall. But she remains alert to an impending arrest, knowing that a lawsuit could disrupt her life for months, if not years.
“She had to push and push and put herself out there… and then he just literally moved on with his life. It’s hard to measure that impact on her as a human being, (and on) her family, her partner,” Levy said. ‘There are costs involved. There are real human costs. It’s someone’s life.”
After leaving Gettysburg, Cleary, 30, graduated from Santa Clara University near a family home in Saratoga, California, worked for Tesla and then moved to France for several years, according to his websitedescribing his self-published medieval fiction.
Story continues
Adams County District Attorney Brian Sinnett, who filed the arrest warrant on June 29, 2021, called the duration of the search “somewhat frustrating.”
“I just have to think that this person has access to resources somewhere,” Sinnett said.
Neither Cleary’s father in California, a marketing executive who has served as a professor and trustee in Santa Clara, nor his mother in Baltimore have sent messages this month seeking comment.
US marshals said the search remains active. An Interpol Red Notice has been issued, asking police stations around the world to apprehend Cleary, although he is not yet on the list public databaseincluding several dozen cases of rape and assault.
“We put a lot of work and effort into it,” said Deputy U.S. Marshal Phil Lewis, superintendent for the Middle District of Pennsylvania office. “We take all crimes against women and children seriously and make them a priority.”
As the #MeToo movement continues to shape society — and some adults, including accusers of Bill Cosby And Donald Trumpuse the courts to seek monetary damages when it’s too late for criminal charges – university students are also seeking accountability.
In California, students are lobbying for on-campus health centers to keep rape kits on hand, or to pay victims in the throes of trauma to travel to a hospital for an exam. More states are requiring colleges to survey students about the climate surrounding sexual assault, and groups like End Rape on Campus are doing the same working on tools make school information more accessible.
And some law enforcement agencies have shown continued commitment, including police keeping abreast of advances in DNA science to make an arrest this year in a 2000 knife-wielding rape at a Penn State golf course.
In 2004, they matched the DNA to an unsolved 1999 golf course rape in Michigan. In 2011, they filed a warrant for the arrest of “John Doe,” identifying the subject only by his DNA before the 12-year statute of limitations in Pennsylvania expired. Using genetic genealogythis year, they identified the suspect as Michigan business owner Kurt Rillema, and matched the DNA samples to a coffee cup he disposed of at a Lexus dealership before indicting him on both counts.
“The police are so often beaten up for doing something wrong. Here it is pretty impressive, they were on the ball,” said attorney Conor Lamb, who last month sued Rillema on behalf of the Penn State prosecutor, a 42-year-old woman in suburban Philadelphia.
Rilemma’s lawyers plan to challenge the privacy issues raised by the genetic sleuth, specifically the way his DNA was obtained from the coffee cup without a warrant.
“Everyone wants to solve old crimes, but the process is so drastic, and if it’s done without a warrant, people should think about it. It’s creepy and scary,” said suburban Detroit attorney Deanna Kelley.
Meanwhile, in Gettysburg, a small town known for its Civil War history, Sinnet said there is now more coordination between the campus and local police, hoping more college rape victims can have their day in court. to get.
Keeler is still waiting for that day, nearly a decade after she reported the assault and Cleary left school, ending the university’s Title IX examination.
“He’s since walked away from this charge again,” she said, trying to “finally close this endless, painful chapter of my life.” ___ Follow author Maryclaire Dale on Twitter
