Sex predator gets 12 years

“He’s been getting bolder, and he continues to blame
all three of his victims,”

A Lebanon man convicted of three separate sex crimes denies responsibility for the attacks – and that’s partly why David Ridenour fits the definition of a “classic sexual predator,” Warren County Prosecutor Rachel Hutzel says.

Judge Neal Bronson today declared that Ridenour “shows a demonstrated pattern of abuse” of women. Bronson sentenced Ridenour to serve 12 years in prison – a six-year term for each of two rapes, one of which happened while Ridenour was free on bond from the first rape charge.

The judge also labeled Ridenour a sexual predator, a designation that will require Ridenour to register his home, work and school addresses with police for the rest of his life after he completes his prison term.

A jury found Ridenour guilty last month after a trial involving two separate victims: a 15-year-old girl who was a family friend and a 25-year-old stranger he accosted as she walked home.

Ridenour was defiant at his sentencing today. “If I did this, I would admit to it. But I didn’t,” he said, vowing to appeal his convictions.

Ridenour’s lawyer, Don Little, said his client isn’t remorseful because he maintains he is innocent.

After court, the teen victim called Ridenour “a total liar.” She said there are other victims who were too fearful to file reports against Ridenour – and Assistant Prosecutor Mel Planas said authorities believe there probably are other victims. If so, Hutzel wants them to come forward.

One prior victim already did.

Last month, Ridenour admitted to unlawful sexual conduct for an offense that happened in 2005 with a girl who was then 15.

With credit for time jailed while awaiting trial on the rape charges, Ridenour has already completed the six-month sentence Bronson imposed for that crime.

The girl reported the 2005 incident earlier this year, after seeing news accounts about the rape charges.

The rape of the teen family friend was reported in October 2006.

Then, while free on $12,500 bond from that charge, Ridenour followed a woman this past April as she was walking home from a job interview. He dragged her into an isolated area of the Lebanon city cemetery and raped her.

“He’s been getting bolder, and he continues to blame all three of his victims,” Hutzel said. Ridenour started with consensual sex with a minor in 2005, escalated to a forced nighttime attack of the teen family friend in 2006 and finally resorted to the 2007 rape of a stranger during daylight.

After the late 2006 rape charge, Planas had asked for a $100,000 bond.

“If the bond had been higher, we would never have had
victim number three,” Hutzel said.

She hopes the case shows magistrates and judges that criminals’ bonds need to be set high enough to protect the public.

Ridenour’s bond wasn’t, she said.