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Former Ohio Mayor Richard Keenan Claims 4-Year-Old Girl He Is Charged With Raping Was A ‘Willing Participant’

By Janice Malcolm
Published on: 10:41 PST, Sep 13, 2016

Court documents have revealed that a former mayor of a small Ohio town, has not only confessed to molesting and raping a little girl for years but has also stated that the girl was a “willing participant.” In fact, the man who has described himself as a dedicated Christian accused the girl of being the one who initiated the sexual acts.

Richard Keenan, the former mayor of Hubbard, Ohio in 2010 and 2011, faces charges of eight counts of rape along with 12 counts of attempted rape and gross sexual imposition. According to the motion that the Trumbull County Prosecutor’s Office filed on Monday, Keenan had confessed to his wife, brother, sister-in-law, and even his pastor of the criminal acts he had committed over a three-year period. It was just last month that Richard Keenan was indicted on the charges, but he has already posted a $75,000 bond and has been released.

The first media outlet to report on the former mayor being indicted was the Youngstown Vindicator, and they revealed that Keenan’s wife, Diana, had first been told of her husband’s criminal sexual activities by the little girl. When she confronted her 65-year-old husband, who is a father of three daughters and three grandchildren, the woman was told point blank by the former mayor that, “I did it.” He later checked himself into a psychiatric facility claiming suicidal thoughts over his actions and during his stay on the ValleyCare Trumbull Memorial Hospital psychiatric ward he admitted to the molesting and rape of the little girl during group discussions.

Richard Keenan also had a session with a social worker whom he told that he had been “feeling suicidal because he had been molesting the child victim for approximately the past two years.” The case that Assistant Prosecutor Gabriel Wildman will present to the courts said that it was during those sessions that Keenan began blaming the victim – who was only 4-years-old when he started molesting her – of being the one to initiate the acts and stated that she had been a “willing participant.”

The prosecutor is currently awaiting a decision from the judge about whether or not the confession Keenan made to his wife and the “in-depth” conversations he had with his pastor are considered as privileged or if they can be allowed into the trial next year as evidence. No member of the clergy can be forced into testifying about a confidential discussion nor a confession, but according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, in the state of Ohio, it is possible for a person to testify against their spouse if they so desire.

The case that the prosecutor’s office has built against Richard Keenan also revealed that the first person the former mayor told about molesting and raping the little girl was a local pastor. He told the clergy member that the girl had walked in on him while he was using the bathroom and “asked him if she could touch his pee-pee.” The man said that he then proceeded to kiss, fondle, and perform oral sex on the girl as well as getting her to kiss his own genitals.

While Richard Keenan’s confession to the social worker says that he had molested and raped the girl over a two-year period, the documents filed with the court say that it was actually almost three years, from September 2013 to June 2016.

Back in January 2010, while he was being sworn in as mayor of Hubbard city, Keenan described himself as a man of faith who had given his life to Jesus.

“I’m a Christian. Dedicating my life to Jesus has changed my life.”

The trial of Richard Keenan is scheduled to begin on April 24, 2017. The charges against him carry a life sentence.

[Image via Trumbull County Sheriff’s Office]

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