The French Court Says an American Man Was Arrested After Saying, So I Raped You. a Facebook Message Can Be Turned Over
In Lyon, France, Monday, a French court said that the American man who is accused of raping a college student in Pennsylvania in 2013 and then sending her a Facebook message that said, “So I raped you,” can be sent back to the United States.
For three years, police searched for Ian Cleary, 31, from Saratoga, California, and finally caught him in April in the city of Metz in northeastern France. Since he was arrested, he has been held in jail until the transfer process is over.
The Metz Court of Appeal said that Cleary could be sent back to the United States. So that he could follow French law and not be extradited, Cleary said no, authorities said in a statement Monday. His resistance might make the extradition process take longer, but it won’t stop it.
This is the final decision. The French Justice Ministry is now in charge of Cleary’s case and must write and send the extradition order for the French prime minister. Cleary is still being held in France while he waits for the prime minister to sign.
When asked for feedback, officials from the Justice Ministry didn’t answer right away.
Cleary had been searched for all over the world since Pennsylvania issued a 2021 felony warrant for her arrest. This came after an Associated Press story revealed that local prosecutors were unwilling to pursue college sex crimes.
Cleary is accused of sexually assaulting an 18-year-old Gettysburg College student while she texted friends for help while she was stalking her at a party and then sneaking into her room to do it. He was a 20-year-old Gettysburg student at the time, but he never came back to school.
Shannon Keeler, the woman who accused Gettysburg, had a rape test done the same day she was raped in 2013. 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.
In a series of texts, the sender 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 AP usually doesn’t name sexual attack victims without their permission, which Keeler has given. When reached on Monday, the accuser’s lawyer in Pennsylvania refused to say anything about the new information.
The warrant from June 2021 says that police confirmed that Ian Cleary owned the Facebook account that was used to send the texts. When contacted Monday, the person who filed it, Adams County District Attorney Brian Sinnett, refused to say anything about what had happened.
Cleary got his undergraduate and graduate degrees from Santa Clara University, which is close to his family’s home in California. He then worked for Tesla and went to France for a few years, according to his website, which talks about his self-published medieval fiction.
Keeler, who is from Moorestown, New Jersey, stayed at Gettysburg to finish school and help the women’s lacrosse team win the national title.
Two years after the warrant was issued, in 2023, Keeler and her lawyers were wondering how he was dodging capture in this day and age of digital tracking. Even though Interpol had put out a red warning about him, the U.S. Marshals Service thought he was probably abroad and on the move.
The AP found that very few college rapes are prosecuted in the U.S. This is because victims are afraid to call the police and prosecutors don’t want to bring cases that could be hard to win.
She was thankful when the warrant was given, but she knew it was only because she told the public about her story, which she felt no other survivor should have to do to get justice.