Man 68, gets jail time for sex assault of girl, 5
MEDIA COURTHOUSE » A 68-year-old East Lansdowne man was sentenced to five to 10 years in a state prison Tuesday for sexually assaulting a 5-year-old girl in 2016.
Ronald MacNeal, of the 400 block of Pembroke Avenue, also was ordered to serve five years of consecutive sex offender probation and register as a sex offender for life under Megan’s Law.
MacNeal was convicted in June on charges of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse with a child, aggravated indecent assault of a child and corruption of minors following a jury trial before Delaware County Court of Common Pleas Judge Mary Alice Brennan.
According to testimony at trial, MacNeal was watching the 5-year-old victim overnight on Aug. 7, 2016, when the assault took place.
The girl’s mother told Assistant District Attorney Ryan Grace that she had gone to MacNeal’s home that day for a barbecue with her 4-year-old son and 5-yearold daughter. She said she had been drinking and MacNeal insisted that her daughter stay over, but not her son.
MacNeal had babysat for the girl on two or three prior occasions and once made her take a bubble bath, according to the mother. He had never offered to watch her son, she said.
The woman said she went home that night, but returned about 8:30 or 9 p.m. to check on her daughter. She said she went up to MacNeal’s locked bedroom door and knocked, but received no response.
The mother said the girl was acting strangely when she picked her up the next day and did not want to be touched. She began urinating on herself shortly thereafter and it was during cleanup for one of those episodes that the mother said she asked, “What happened to you, did somebody touch you?” Her daughter lowered her head and said, “Ron put his fingers in my privates.”
She was subsequently examined at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and interviewed on camera by child forensic interviewer Jodi Kaplan, director of the Delaware County Children’s Advocacy Center.
The girl told Kaplan she went to “Ronnie Rizzle’s” home that night and watched the movie “Frozen” on his bed while he slept on the floor fully clothed. At some point, MacNeal took a bath and then joined her on the bed, where he took her panties off and digitally penetrated her vagina and anus.
Delaware County Detective Mark Bucci said at trial that MacNeal denied the allegations during an interview, but acknowledged that his hand had accidentally touched the girl’s vagina while the two were playing a “poke the butt” game. MacNeal’s roommate also testified that he heard a wailing sound come from MacNeal’s bedroom between 10 p.m. and midnight on the night the girl slept over.
“I heard this ungodly cryout,” the man said. “It filled the house. Something bad had really happened to her.”
Grace was asking for a sentence of 15 to 30 years, which defense attorney Joseph Lesniak said would amount to a life sentence. Lesniak pointed to MacNeal’s various health problems, including chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, as well as his service in the U.S. Army as potential mitigating factors.
Grace argued that “no
time is too much” and said the victim also received a life sentence. He added that MacNeal ran a “drug home” and used the mother’s addiction as a conduit to her daughter.
“And so, essentially, what you’re sentencing today is a defendant who used Delaware County’s drug epidemic to molest one of Delaware County’s children,” said Grace. “This is as heinous as it gets.”
MacNeal gave a brief statement in which he said that he prayed for the children of the victim’s mother and that he hopes she gets clean. He has indicated he plans to appeal the conviction.
In addition to prison time and probation, MacNeal was ordered to comply with the recommendations of a psychosexual evaluation, provide a DNA sample to state police and stay away from the victim. He is not eligible for early release.