Fugitive rape suspect hid in plain sight for 20 years as a yacht-owning L.A. biotech pharma exec

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Set us as preferred Richard Graydon spent years cultivating an enviable life.He worked for a biotech pharma company in Los Angeles.He owned a 56-foot yacht he named Silver Lining, and authorities said he was known as a master yachtsman and a world traveler.But the U.S.

Marshals Service and federal prosecutors say it was all built on a false identity.Graydon’s real name, federal authorities said, was Ronald L.Fischer, and he was a Rhode Island fugitive who used more than a dozen aliases to avoid capture for more than 20 years.Last week, a federal task force along with the U.S.

Coast Guard tracked Fischer to his yacht and took him into custody off the coast of New Jersey.“You can run, but you cannot hide from justice,” First Assistant U.S.Atty.

Charles C.Calenda for the District of Rhode Island said in a statement.

“Ronald Fischer will now return to Rhode Island to face the consequences he sought to evade for more than 20 years.”“This arrest demonstrates that time does not erase accountability,” Wing Chau, U.S.marshal for the District of Rhode Island, said in a statement.

“For more than twenty years, Ronald Fischer believed he had successfully escaped justice.The men and women of the Rhode Island Violent Fugitive Task Force, together with our partners, remained committed to ensuring that day would eventually come.”Fischer, who had been accused of raping a woman on a yacht called Lion King in 2003, fled during his May 2005 rape trial.

He was convicted of first-degree sexual assault in his absence.An arrest warrant was issued for him that same month for failure to appear, first degree sexual assault and flight to avoid prosecution, according to federal authorities.Cheryl Gingrich told WRAL News she focused on healing from the trauma she experienced while authorities searched for Fischer.“I started to come ...