PBA president gets more serious sex assault charges
TRENTON » The Mercer County corrections officer who was arrested Sunday on sexual assault allegations has been hit with additional charges stemming from another incident.
In addition to being accused of sexually assaulting a woman in Trenton’s Cadwalader Park on Oct. 6, Donald J. Ryland, 44, of Hamilton, is further accused of sexually assaulting another woman Oct. 12 on Riverside Avenue, prosecutors alleged.
Ryland’s family members, including his wife and dad, attended his detention hearing on Thursday and saw him enter the courtroom with his head down, clearly shaken. Prosecutors want Ryland to be jailed without bail on pretrial detention but requested to postpone the hearing into next week due to Ryland’s additional charges.
Ryland, who is president of PBA Local 167, on Thursday afternoon was charged with kidnapping, aggravated sexual assault and aggravated assault, according to the Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office.
The new charges pertain to an incident that occurred on Oct. 12 when Trenton patrol units responded to a residence on Riverside Avenue for an unknown trouble call, the prosecutor’s office said Thursday in a press release.
“The officers located the adult female victim with a visible laceration and swelling of her left eye,” the press release said. “The victim described the suspect and stated she entered his vehicle and was driven to an unknown area. When she got to the porch of an unknown residence, the suspect grabbed her by the throat, put her in a headlock, struck her head against the porch and punched her in the head before sexually assaulting her and fleeing the area.”
The Oct. 12 incident is similar to the first incident that occurred on Oct. 6, and prosecutors allege that Ryland is the perpetrator responsible for both assaults.
In the first incident, prosecutors say Ryland picked up a woman on South Broad Street and drove her to Cadwalader Park. Moments after the woman exited his car, prosecutors say, Ryland chased her, knocked her onto the ground and sexually assaulted her.
The victim eventually ran and told two guards at a park security gate. Meanwhile, Ryland — who unsuccessfully ran for Hamilton Council as a Democrat in 2015 — fled.
Following the Oct. 6 assault, detectives conducted operations in the city to identify the suspect, to no avail. The first victim, though, saw Ryland on Sunday and flagged down a detective from Trenton’s Street Crimes Unit.
After the victim gave cops the description and license plate of the suspect’s vehicle, police found Ryland on Adeline Street and arrested him, charging him with second-degree sexual assault by force or coercion. “The actor uses physical force or coercion, but the victim does not sustain severe personal injury,” reads the statute that police first charged Ryland under.
The charges in the second assault are more serious, with aggravated sexual assault being a first-degree violent crime in which a conviction can yield 20 years of imprisonment.
Ryland has been suspended without pay following an administrative hearing on Monday, according to a Mercer County spokeswoman.
Defense ready
As serious as the charges are, Ryland’s attorney Jeff Ziegelheim in an interview on Thursday suggested that Ryland has an ironclad defense.
“He shouldn’t have to prove anything,” Ziegelheim said of his client, “but we are very confident he can’t be in two places at the same time.”
Earlier in the week, defense attorney Stuart J. Alterman told The
Trentonian that “Don Ryland is innocent and we are confident that over the next period of time we will be able to demonstrate his innocence. We will seek to clear his name from this horrendous allegation.”
Ryland has been employed as a Mercer County corrections officer since 1995 and has served as president of the Policemen’s Benevolent Association Local 167 union for much of his tenure. Prior to his arrest, Ryland was known for his community involvement of mentoring children and coaching youth sports throughout the Mercer County area for the last two decades.
In addition to his unsuccessful 2015 run for Hamilton Council, Ryland previously ran for a seat on the Hamilton Township Board of Education in a campaign that fell short of victory. Ryland, however, has served as president of the Pace Charter School of Hamilton’s board of trustees in recent years.
Ryland’s postponed detention hearing is scheduled to resume 10 a.m. Wednesday, Oct. 25, before Mercer County Superior Court Judge Thomas Brown. That hearing will determine whether Ryland gets released from jail with conditions or remains incarcerated without bail as his case plays out in the courts.
Meanwhile, authorities are still seeking additional information on the second sexual assault case against Ryland. Anyone with information on the case is urged to contact Detective Anthony Petracca of the Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office at (609) 989-6424 or Trenton Police Detective Laurel Rogers at (609) 989- 4155.