This article, authored by Hudson Crozier is republished under the Creative Commons “CC BY-NC-ND” license with permission from The Daily Caller News Foundation.
A convicted child rapist who avoided jail time thanks to a leftist prosecutor was seen traveling with a missing girl this week in Virginia, according to police.
Autumn Van Zandt, 17, went missing after Tuesday with Ronnie Reel, 39, and the pair “may be attempting to travel out of state,” the Fredericksburg Police Department (FPD) said in a Thursday Facebook post asking the public to help find her. Democratic Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve Descano gave Reel a plea deal that released him from jail on time served in 2022 after he admitted to sexually abusing another minor, FOX5 reported.
Descano’s office did not respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment. Descano took office in 2020, received more than $600,000 in campaign support from a PAC tied to leftist financier George Soros since 2019 and has survived two recall efforts over soft-on-crime policies.
The prosecutor’s office allowed Reel to plead guilty to misdemeanor assault and battery in 2022 after he admittedly raped an 11-year-old the year prior, leading to a one-year sentence that ended immediately due to time served, FOX5 reported. Reel was initially indicted on sodomy and aggravated sexual battery and would have faced up to life in prison, according to the outlet. Reel reportedly committed the 2022 assault while already on probation from another case in Fredericksburg.
Descano’s chief of staff complained to FOX5 that the victim struggled to remember details of the assault consistently while on the stand. “Following this testimony, we consulted with the family, who agreed that guaranteeing accountability through a plea deal was the right move at that point given how the case had evolved,” the official said.
Reel is now once again on Fredericksburg police’s radar.
The missing child he allegedly ran off with “is described as 5’7, 135 lbs., brown hair, and brown eyes” and “was last seen wearing a black top and jean shorts with a red purse and has a heart shaped tattoo on the left/right side of her hip,” the FPD said. The department asked the public for “any information, no matter how small” on her whereabouts.
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