Ex-Hubbard mayor faces child-sex charges

By ED RUNYAN

runyan@vindy.com

WARREN

Richard D. Keenan, 65, who served as Hubbard mayor through 2010 and 2011 and also was a city councilman in the 1990s, kept his head low while being arraigned Thursday on eight counts of rape of a small child, four counts of

attempted rape and eight counts of gross sexual imposition.

The arraignment took place in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court shortly after he was indicted by a Trumbull County grand jury. The charges accuse him of assaulting the same child from the fall of 2013 through this June, when the allegations surfaced.

Twelve of the charges carry a possible life prison sentence if he’s convicted. The eight others each could add several years. Keenan lives on Moore Street in Hubbard.

The rape counts each could produce a maximum sentence of life in prison without the chance of parole. The attempted-rape counts each could produce a prison sentence of 10 years to life.

Keenan pleaded not guilty during the arraignment, and Judge W. Wyatt McKay set bond at $75,000, despite a request from Gabe Wildman, assistant Trumbull County prosecutor, that the bond be $500,000. Keenan posted that bond at 4:30 p.m. Thursday and the judge ordered him to have no contact with children. He returns to court for his first pretrial hearing Sept. 12.

In asking for the higher bond, Wildman noted that Keenan knows the accuser. She was only 4 when the offenses are alleged to have begun, according to Keenan’s indictment.

Police reports say adults accused Keenan of committing the offenses in Hubbard and in Ashtabula County. No charges have been filed in Ashtabula County.

In arguing for a lesser bond, however, Keenan’s attorney. J. Gerald Ingram, told Judge McKay that Keenan has no prior criminal record, has been married to the same woman for 43 years, he and his wife raised three children, all of his family is from the area, he has cancer, and “his doctors are here” in this area.

For those reasons, Keenan is not a flight risk, Ingram said.

Keenan was appointed by Trumbull County Democratic Party Central Committee members to serve as Hubbard mayor in late December 2009 to complete the last two years of the term of Arthur Magee, who resigned for health reasons. In 1999, Keenan worked as a car inspector for CSX Railroad in New Castle, Pa., according to a 2009 Vindicator article.

Keenan was a probation officer in Girard Municipal Court in the mid-1990s after leaving P&LE Railroad in Struthers in 1992. He served on Hubbard City Council in the early 1990s and again in the late 1990s, according to Vindicator files.

Keenan and his wife, Diana, have three daughters and three grandchildren, according to a 2009 Vindicator article.

Attempts to reach current Hubbard Mayor John Darko and most members of city council for comment were unsuccessful. Council President Bill Williams, however, confirmed that Keenan has served as a soccer referee for high school and youth games over the years.

Williams served as council president while Keenan was mayor, but said of the allegations: “I don’t know what to say about it,” adding, “Let’s let it work itself out through the judicial system.”

He declined to comment on what type of mayor Keenan was or discuss what type of man he has been over the years.

Councilman Ben Kyle declined to comment when asked his reaction to the charges.