Warren rapist sent to prison

The convicted Warren rapist accused his victim of raping him.

By TIM YOVICH

VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF

WARREN — Judge John M. Stuard is a mild-mannered jurist, but even he couldn’t put up with the outbursts and interruptions of convicted rapist Richard Hadden.

After having Hadden removed from his Trumbull County Common Pleas Court courtroom twice Thursday afternoon, he sentenced the 57-year-old Warran man to 18 1/2 years in prison — by video camera while Hadden sat handcuffed in a nearby room.

“I’ll only do three years,” Hadden yelled as he was escorted out of the county courthouse surrounded by several deputies.

His attorney, John Fowler, told the judge that he will file the notice of appeal for Hadden but refused to represent him anymore.

Hadden, of Dover Street Southwest, was convicted Feb. 1 by a jury of kidnapping and raping a woman at her South Street home in Warren and stealing her car.

During his trial, Hadden was removed from Judge Stuard’s courtroom a couple of times for his disruptions.

He had made comments about the victim during her testimony and cursed at Mike Burnett, an assistant county prosecutor, during his own testimony at trial.

Burnett asked for the maximum 21 1/2 years in prison for Hadden but expressed satisfaction with the sentence.

Hadden’s accuser had testified that on May 2, 2006, she was attacked by Hadden. She didn’t want to have sex with him because she had to work the next day.

She testified that Hadden held an ice pick near her as she drove him to her house to look for some keys. He then kept the ice pick nearby as he degraded her and forced her to perform sex in the living room.

The victim told the jury that she was nude and had to gather up her 3-year-old son who was sleeping in her home. She dropped from a second-floor bedroom and ran for help.

Hadden began yelling his contempt for the judge while being walked from the county jail to the courthouse across the street.

Once in the courtroom, he told the judge that he didn’t get a fair trial because the jury had seen his outburst during trial.

Judge Stuard told him to “shut up,” but Hadden continued. It was then that he was ordered out of the courtroom.

“I will never be silent,” Hadden yelled, even accusing his victim, who was in the courtroom, of raping him.

Judge Stuard said that two psychological evaluations of Hadden found that he was capable of assisting in his defense although he has an anti-social personality.

The judge noted that while in the county jail, he has threatened sheriff’s employees with talk of raping their mothers and daughters.

“To me, that means he’s a bully,” the judge commented.

Deputies have said that Hadden has been throwing his own feces against the jail walls.

In her victim impact statement, his accuser said that Hadden, and what he did to her, will not change her life.

“I’m still in control of my life. I still go places alone, so if you thought that doing this to me would break me down or make me weak, you were sadly mistaken,” she said.

“You are a very small-minded, ignorant excuse of a man. You are a coward. I am not afraid of you nor will I ever be,” she said in her statement.

yovich@vindy.com