Ryan Stocker arraigned on two new charges Recordings of prison phone calls led police to 4th victim

By Shawn Cunningham
©2019 Telegraph Publishing LLC

WHITE RIVER JUNCTION

Authorities have added two new felony charges and a fourth victim to the cases against Ryan Stocker of Chester. Stocker, 20, was arrested on Thursday and arraigned this afternoon in Windsor County Superior Court Criminal Division in White River Junction.

Stocker was first charged as an 18-year-old in June 2017 on two counts of sexual assault in incidents that occurred in October 2016 in Ludlow and in May 2017 in Chester. Two victims were involved.  Then, in August 2017, prosecutors brought two more counts of sexual assault against Stocker for an incident that occurred in Ludlow in July 2015. He was charged with kidnapping, attempted aggravated sexual assault and lewd and lascivious conduct with a child in connection that case.

The new counts brought on Thursday, which include kidnapping and lewd and lascivious conduct, stem from an investigation that resulted in a charge of obstruction of justice that was filed in October 2018. In that case, police listened to recordings of phone conversations between friends and Stocker that were made while he was being held at Southern State Correctional Facility in lieu of bail. Police say the calls were of Stocker discussing the cases and asking his friends to see if victims would drop the charges.

Police contacted a Chester woman who was named in the recordings. Police say that in the summer of  2015 Stocker was at her home with her brother and other friends when the woman, who was under 18 at the time of the alleged incident, returned from work. According to the charging documents, the woman said she hung out with the group for about an hour, then went to bed since she had to work early the next morning. The woman told police that as she fell asleep, Stocker joined her wearing only boxer shorts.

Police say that Stocker restrained the woman from getting out of bed and repeatedly touched her trying to “get in her pants.” When the woman freed herself, she went to another room to sleep while, according to the complaint filed by police, Stocker had a “temper tantrum,” throwing and breaking things until a friend calmed him down.

With these latest charges, Stocker faces a total of three felony counts of sexual assault, two felony counts of kidnapping, one felony count each of attempted aggravated sexual assault, lewd and lascivious conduct, lewd and lascivious conduct with a child, and obstructing justice. Stocker has also been charged with a misdemeanor count of furnishing alcohol to a minor.

Judge Timothy B. Tomasi released Stocker on the $100,000 bond posted in previous charges. His conditions of release include a 24-hour curfew except for work with this father.

A status conference on the new charges is scheduled for Feb. 12 while pretrial conferences and jury drawings on other charges are scheduled for May and June.