East Berlin, Pennsylvania — This American man was accused of sexually abusing a college student in 2013 and then sending her a Facebook message that said, “So I raped you.” On Friday, he was ordered to be held without bail in Pennsylvania court.
A day after getting back to the U.S., Ian Cleary, 31, from Saratoga, California, showed up. After three years of searching, he was caught in April in Metz, France. Later, a French appeals court said he could be sent back to the United States. At the preliminary hearing, he showed up by video and without a lawyer.
The detention order came from East Berlin District Judge Tony J. Little, who cited a request from the Adams County District Attorney’s Office. The office said that Cleary had no ties to the area and had been in France without a job or a permanent home. Prosecutors also said that he had access to money through his family.
During the hearing, Cleary seemed pretty calm, and she only spoke quickly to answer the judge’s questions. The next meeting was set for January 29.
Shannon Keeler, a former student at Gettysburg University who worked on the case for more than ten years, said that Cleary’s extradition gave her “new faith” in the justice system.
Cleary was searched for all over the world after Pennsylvania issued an arrest warrant in the case in 2021. This came just weeks after an Associated Press story showed that local prosecutors were reluctant to go after college sex crimes.
Cleary was accused of following Keeler, who was 18, around a college party in 2013 and then breaking into her dorm and sexually assaulting her while she texted friends for help. He was a 20-year-old Gettysburg student at the time, but he never came back to school.
The same day, Keeler had a rape test. She gathered proof and witnesses and pushed for years for the police to press charges. When she found the Facebook texts that seemed to come from Cleary’s account in 2021, she went to the police again.
The person who sent the texts said, “So I raped you.”
“I’ll never do that to anyone else again.”
“I want to hear your voice.”
“I will say a prayer for you.”
The warrant says that the cops checked and found that Cleary’s Facebook account was used to send the messages.
The AP usually doesn’t talk about sexual attack victims without their permission, which Keeler has given.
Andrea Levy, Keeler’s lawyer, said that seeing Cleary in jail was “a relief.” “Accountability has been delayed for so long,” she said. This is the main reason why the case is important.
Levy said that she and her client are thankful that police worked hard to bring Cleary back to Pennsylvania so long after the incident.
“She didn’t give up,” Levy said. “Many people would not have been able to keep going with this for 11 years.”
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