A 56-year-old Waldport man arrested 10 months ago on kidnapping and other charges after a two-week search by Lincoln County Sheriff’s deputies has been sentenced to nearly 12 years in prison.
Richard A. Leach pleaded guilty to first-degree kidnapping, strangulation, unlawful use of a weapon and recklessly endangering and was sentenced Friday by Presiding Circuit Judge Sheryl Bachart. He had originally been accused of 28 charges and held on $500,000 bail. Those charges were dropped by the district attorney’s office in return for pleading guilty to the four offenses.
Sheriff’s deputies arrested Leach last May 28 after nearly two weeks on the run and a chase through forest roads.
Deputies had been looking for Leach since May 16 when they went to a disturbance outside a business on Hemlock Street in downtown Waldport. The man and a passenger had fled, but deputies knew the vehicle and attempted to contact Leach at his home. But he fled again.
The Lincoln County District Attorney’s Office said in a news release Friday that Leach’s girlfriend recounted “a day full of terror” with Leach assaulting her throughout the day, holding her at gunpoint while driving and threatening to cut her with a box cutter.
Deputies searched for Leach extensively the next several days and found his vehicle burned on a remote forest road. The afternoon of May 28 deputies spotted Leach in a car that had been reported stolen three miles east of Waldport on Highway 34. Leach fled again with deputies pursuing him for 45 minutes over forest roads between East Canal Creek Road and East Eckman Creek Road. Deputies used a spike strip near the intersection of Eckman Creek Road and East Lakeside Drive to disable the vehicle and two police dogs were used to subdue him.
