(Stillwater, Okla.) — A Cushing man was arraigned Wednesday by video from the Payne County Jail on charges of molesting an 11-year-old girl, to whom he is related, in her home while he allegedly thought she was asleep.
Colten Allen Ryba, 28, remains in custody on $75,000 bail pending a Feb. 4 court appearance at which he can seek a preliminary hearing on two counts of lewd molestation.
If convicted, Ryba faces a minimum prison term of 25 years on each count, according to the two-count charge filed by Payne County Assistant District Attorney Debra Vincent.
The girl’s mother contacted KUSH to request that her daughter be given privacy at this time so that she can heal.
The girl told a forensic interviewer at the Saville Center in Stillwater that she was afraid Ryba would start doing the same thing to her little sister if she did not say anything, Cushing Police Officer Justin Sappington alleged in an affidavit.
The Cushing officer was sent at 9:07 a.m. on Jan. 14 to the girl’s home, where her mother, visibly upset and crying, said her daughter “just told her she had been touched,” by Ryba, the affidavit alleged.
The girl had asked to stay home from school that day “because she had something important to tell her mother,” the affidavit alleged.
The Cushing officer did not interview the girl, who was taken to the Saville Center where she said that possibly the first time occurred in 2017 at a family member’s house, the affidavit alleged.
The girl said “she acted like she was asleep because she was afraid,” the affidavit alleged.
At the Cushing police station in an interview that was audio and video-recorded, Ryba “first denied any inappropriate contact,” but later admitted to touching the girl as she slept on Jan. 11, the affidavit alleged.
Ryba “advised this was the first and only time this had happened, the affidavit alleged.
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