Marion County man from infamous 'spousal rape' trial arrested on rape charges

Marion County man from infamous 'spousal rape' trial arrested on rape charges
Source: Statesman Journal

Marion County man from infamous 'spousal rape' trial arrested on rape charges

Whitney M. Woodworth, Statesman Journal 8:31 p.m. PDT July 29, 2016

A 59-year-old Marion County man, who was made infamous in 1978 as the first man in American history to go to trial for raping his wife while they were living together, was arrested on two new counts of first-degree rape Thursday.

Almost 40 years ago, a jury unanimously acquitted John Joseph Rideout on charges that he raped his wife in front of their 2-year-old child at the couple's north Salem apartment.

At the time, Oregon was one of the few states that did not recognize "marital privilege" as a rape defense.

The case garnered national attention and press coverage, including a 1980 made-for-television movie starring Mickey Rourke as Rideout and Linda Hamilton as his wife.

Rideout was arraigned Friday on the new charges at the Marion County Circuit Court Annex.

In a secret indictment filed in Marion County, Rideout is accused of unlawfully and knowingly engaging in sexual intercourse with a woman in May who was unable to consent by "reason of physical helplessness."

According to Deputy District Attorney Gillian Fischer, the woman was Rideout's girlfriend.

Rideout is also accused of engaging in sex by forcible compulsion with a woman in June 2013. Fischer said the woman met Rideout through her church. After the alleged attack, the woman told her pastor, who kicked Rideout out of the church. The woman did not contact police until Rideout left her a voicemail earlier this year.

"He's obviously a danger to his community," Fischer said, adding that Rideout was arrested for rape in 1978 as well as on various firearms, DUI, driving and theft charges since then.
John Rideout speaks with an attorney as he is arraignedBuy Photo

John Rideout speaks with an attorney as he is arraigned on two counts of first-degree rape at the Marion County Court Annex in Salem on Friday, July 29, 2016. Rideout was famously acquitted on a rape charge in 1978 of his then-wife. (Photo: ANNA REED / Statesman Journal)

Rideout's address was not included in recent court records, but a civil case from 2015 listed him as resident in a rural home near Jefferson.

When Fischer requested that Judge Steven Price deny bail, Rideout turned his back to the courtroom and shook his head. When Fischer mentioned "two separate victims and two separate rapes," he scoffed and interjected.

"Alleged!" he said. "Alleged, your honor!"

Price set Rideout's bail at $300,000. His next court appearance is scheduled for 8:30 a.m. Aug. 11 at the annex.

The tiny, sparsely occupied courtroom Friday was a departure from the packed courtroom of the 1978 trial at the Marion County Circuit Courthouse. About 150 people, including 30 media representatives, crowded in to hear the jury's verdict after a six-day trial.

"It was a national trial, a test case," said John Furey, who was covering courts for the Statesman Journal at the time. Suddenly, he was writing two to four stories a day, working until midnight and being contacted to write for the New York Post and other national publications.

STATESMAN JOURNAL

From our archives: Rideout acquitted of wife-rape charge

The contrasting personalities of the courtroom at that time — Marion County District Attorney Gary Gortmaker, a big man with a powerful personality, and Charles Burt, a small, hunched, highly-respected defense attorney — made for a lot of theatrics, Furey said.

According to a 1978 article in the Statesman Journal, Burt claimed Greta Rideout's story was not reliable.

"Here is a woman of 23 years who had an abortion, lied about sexual relations and accused another man of raping her," Burt said.

Gortmaker argued that women all over the country experienced spousal rape. Sometimes, he said, their only escape is death.

"You can't fake fear," he said. "This isn't the first Rideout case. It is just the first in the courtroom...Don't we owe it to all the Greta Rideouts in this country to use the law rather than suicide or homicide?"

After hours of deliberation, the jury — eight women and four men — unanimously acquitted John Rideout.

The Rideouts were in the spotlight and both of them probably got more attention than they wanted, Furey said.
John Rideout is arraigned on two counts of first-degreeBuy Photo

John Rideout is arraigned on two counts of first-degree rape at the Marion County Court Annex in Salem on Friday, July 29, 2016. Rideout was famously acquitted on a rape charge in 1978 of his then-wife. (Photo: ANNA REED / Statesman Journal)

John Rideout quit his job as a short-order cook at Sambo's Restaurant in Salem. The couple reunited two weeks after the trial and stopped divorce proceedings. The reconciliation was short-lived, and the pair split later that year.

STATESMAN JOURNAL

From our archives: Rideouts make up

The couple's story was adapted into a made-for-television movie in 1980, called "Rape and Marriage: The Rideout Case," starring Mickey Rourke, Linda Hamilton and Rip Torn.

The trial, acquittal, and reconciliation fostered discussion, disagreement and disdain among feminists, legal experts, residents and people close to the couple. The Washington Post wrote about the case's effect the year the movie was released:

"When 23-year-old Greta Rideout charged her husband with rape, she touched a live nerve deeply buried in the Western tradition of man as protector, woman as chattel.That John Rideout was acquitted was almost irrelevant. It did not affect the Oregon law which eliminated marriage as a defense against a rape charge, despite dire predictions of some connected with the case and the stated hope of members of the town's legal establishment. It did encourage the passage of similar laws in California and Minnesota."

Email [email protected], call 503-399-6884 or follow on Twitter @wmwoodworth