[Xiphos]

This title should be "Gutless Prosecution Puts Dangerous Criminal on Streets to Do It Again."

Man jailed following assault at mall
The man is accused of sexually assaulting a teenager in a mall dressing room.

By Amanda Codispoti
981-3334

A Roanoke man accused of abducting a teen at knifepoint in a mall dressing room and then sexually assaulting her is being held in the Roanoke City Jail.

The 16-year-old victim told police that she was in a dressing room at Abercrombie & Fitch in Valley View Mall on Sunday afternoon when the man forced his way in and brandished a knife, police spokeswoman Aisha Johnson said Monday.

A store employee knocked on the dressing room door and asked the girl if she was OK. When the girl said no, the employee forced the door open. The man ran out and mall security chased him into the parking lot but lost him, Johnson said.

The abduction lasted only a few minutes at most, Johnson said.

About an hour and a half later, at 4:30 p.m., Roanoke police arrested Ryan Jason Sink, 32, in the parking lot outside the mall. Officers charged him with abduction, aggravated sexual assault, assault and battery and impeding arrest.

The victim was not taken to the hospital, Johnson said.

The dressing rooms at Abercrombie & Fitch are along the walls of the store and open directly onto the selling floor. The doors have locks, but Johnson would not say if the girl's door was locked because that is part of the investigation.

A manager at Abercrombie & Fitch referred calls to corporate offices in Columbus, Ohio. No one there returned a message left Monday afternoon. A mall spokeswoman also did not return a message.

In 2007, Sink was convicted of sexual battery. That charge stemmed from a March 2006 incident in which a woman accused Sink of raping and assaulting her in a downtown parking garage.

In exchange for a plea agreement, prosecutors dropped charges of rape, abduction, using a firearm while committing an abduction, forcible sodomy and using a firearm while committing a rape, according to court records.

He was sentenced to six months in jail for the sexual battery conviction.

He also has been convicted of malicious wounding, robbery by violence and two counts of assault and battery.

How the hell do you give away rape, abduction, using a firearm, forcible sodomy etc in exchange for 6 months on sexual battery? That is shameful! That's gutless prosecution right there. What's the logic? I'm guessing, "The judges are too soft and we'll give it away to get him on the Sex Offender Registry." What??? Put that on and let the responsibility rest with a weak judge. Six months might as well be nothing. If you lose it all at least you can sleep at night knowing you tried. Wait, it was a successful prosecution because he didn't use a gun this time. Grow a backbone.

[121Traffic]

Agreed. The level of recidivism in sex offenses is through the roof. Harsh prosecution is a MUST.

[10-42Adam]

The courts these days are really dropping the ball. I think they're lazy and just want to plea everything out because it's a check-mark in the "win" category for them. Pathetic and dangerous is what it is, though.