The resolution of a two-year old sexual abuse case in Greene County is going to wait a little longer.
46-year old Ryan J. Breckon of rural Carrollton turned himself into the Greene County Sheriff’s Office in June 2022 after an arrest warrant was issued by the Greene County State’s Attorney’s Office for aggravated criminal sexual abuse of a minor victim. The warrant stemmed from a 16-month long investigation.
According to Greene County Sheriff Rob McMillen at the time of the arrest, an investigation by the Sheriff’s Office began in February 2021 where a victim between the ages of 13-17 alleged that Breckon, who was at least 5 years older than the victim, had sexual contact with the victim, in that Breckon is accused of improperly touching the victim. Breckon was an acquaintance of the victim and the victim’s family.
The case has gone through a series of continuances, including a change of judge in the case. Visiting Jersey County Judge Allison Lorton was assigned the case soon after the charges were filed in late June 2022. Due to Judge Lorton’s availability to the Greene County Court, the case has had hearings on a near monthly basis since the change in judge.
On Thursday of last week, Greene County State’s Attorney Caleb Briscoe dismissed the case with leave to reinstate due to scheduling of the state’s chief witness. Briscoe says the charges will be refiled sometime later this year: “[The victim’s] availability as a witness has been difficult to schedule over the course of the case. They did choose to pursue a career in the military. They have been performing duties for the military for the past several months. Being able to get the alleged victim back here to testify has been challenging, because we certainly don’t want to mess up her career goals. We got to the point where the case had been open so long that we needed to come to a resolution, but we still weren’t able to get her back here to Greene County to testify. So, we made the decision to, after talking with the alleged victim and her family, to go ahead and dismiss the case with leave to reinstate. We believe that she will have more permanency in terms of her assignment with the military over the next several months. Once we are able to determine when she would be available to come back to Greene County to be able to testify in this case, it’s our intent to refile those charges and reinstate the case.”
Briscoe says that once the charges are reinstated, the potential trial and resolution should be reached quickly rather than restarting multiple delays.
Breckon faces the potential of 3 to 7 years in prison, fines of up to $25,000, and requirements of registering as a sex offender.