Ex-Hubbard mayor Keenan pleads guilty to raping, molesting 4-year-old
WARREN — Former Hubbard mayor Richard Keenan, 66, pleaded guilty to eight rape charges and 12 lesser charges Friday for raping and molesting a child over a three-year period starting when she was 4.
His agreed-upon sentence calls for him to go to prison for life with parole eligibility after 10 years. He will be sentenced in several weeks, after the county adult probation department conducts a background investigation.
Keenan did not have to speak at the hearing other than to respond yes or no. While standing with his attorney in front of Judge Peter Kontos of common pleas court, Keenan appeared to be shaking.
He walked out of the courtroom with two unidentified females and a pastor to report to the probation department. He will remain free on $75,000 bond until his sentencing hearing in several weeks.
“Our position is it’s a life sentence. It gives the victim some closure, and it obviously keeps this young child from having to testify,” Gabe Wildman, assistant prosecutor, said of the plea agreement.
Prosecutors said Keenan, of Moore Street in Hubbard, who served as Hubbard mayor in 2010 and 2011, admitted to committing the crimes to his wife, a pastor, a social worker and his brother and sister-in-law.
Prosecutors said Keenan assaulted the child from the fall of 2013 through last June, when the allegations surfaced.
A filing in the case states that when Keenan’s wife, Diana, heard about the assaults from the child, “upon confronting [her husband] about the allegations, [Keenan] responded, ‘I did it.’”
Read more about the case in Saturday's Vindicator or on Vindy.com.