South Bay man who sent Facebook message about committing a 2013 campus sexual assault pleads guilty

By MARYCLAIRE DALE Associated Press GETTYSBURG Pa A Bay Area man extradited from France to face charges that he sexually assaulted a fellow Pennsylvania college learner in and later sent her a Facebook message that stated So I raped you pleaded guilty Thursday Ian Cleary pleaded guilty to second-degree sexual assault more than a decade after Shannon Keeler says he sneaked into her first-year dorm at Gettysburg College on the eve of winter break and assaulted her Cleary s guilty plea was the first time she d seen him since the assault Related Articles Forger passes checks from Prospect High Federal judge grants San Jose tattoo artist reprieve in fight against ICE Stanford protesters facing felony vandalism charges defer pleas San Jose police announce three new traffic death investigations San Jose woman arrested on suspicion of arson murder I had been thinking about this moment for years commented Keeler who clenched her husband s hand as Cleary was led into court by deputies She called it a surreal moment A decade ago a former prosecutor had declined the scenario It s taken a lot of twists and turns to get to this point stated Keeler now It took a lot of people doing the right thing to get us here Judge Kevin Hess set an Oct sentencing date The two sides proposed a four- to eight-year sentence which the judge can accept or not Keeler in interviews with The Associated Press described her decade-long efforts to persuade functionaries to pursue charges starting hours after the assault She renewed the quest in after finding a series of disturbing Facebook messages from his account Cleary has been in custody since his arrest on minor unrelated charges in Metz France in April A defense lawyer narrated the judge Thursday that Cleary experienced several mental healthcare episodes there and was hospitalized around the time he sent the Facebook messages in Cleary left Gettysburg after the assault and finished college in Silicon Valley California where he d grown up He then got a master s degree and worked for Tesla before moving overseas where he spent time writing medieval fiction according to his online posts The AP published an inspection on the development and on the broader reluctance among prosecutors to pursue campus sex assault charges in May An indictment followed weeks later Bureaucrats in the U S and Europe tried to track Cleary down for the next three years but seemed unable to follow his trail online or otherwise In court Thursday defense lawyer John Abom declared Cleary was homeless at times and unaware of the charges Adams County District Attorney Brian Sinnett on Thursday revealed he has his doubts but cannot prove that Cleary was on the run so it s unlikely to be an issue at sentencing The second-degree sexual assault charge carries a maximum years in prison His family members have declined to comment on the episode and have not attended his court hearings Abom also declined to comment on Cleary s behalf Thursday The AP typically does not name people who say they have been sexually assaulted unless they come forward publicly as Keeler has done I hope that we as a society the institutions around us can make truly effective legal outcomes more viable for casualties she noted after the plea It starts with listening to casualties and making sure their voices are heard she commented even if the system s slow to catch up