GoKawiilOne of Rhode Island’s most-wanted fugitives was arrested in New York last week after being on the run for more than 20 years, which was at least partially spent hiding as a biotech executive, according to Stat News.
In a Securities and Exchange Commission filing Monday, California-based Immix Biopharma noted that Richard Graydon was terminated Friday for “reasons unrelated to his activities at the Company.”
It turns out, Richard Graydon was an alias for Ronald Fischer, a 70-year-old former anesthesiologist licensed in Rhode Island and Massachusetts, who fled amid his 2005 trial for first-degree sexual assault. Fischer was accused of raping a woman during a date on his yacht, Lion King.
That followed a similar incident in 1994, in which he was accused of raping another woman on another of his yachts, The Dreammaker. In that case, he ultimately pled guilty to assault and battery and received a two-year prison sentence that was suspended, according to the Boston Globe. At that point, his medical licenses were revoked.
Days before closing arguments for his 2005 trial, he sent his lawyer an email with the subject line “Goodbye,” according to the Providence Journal.
“Although I believe my trial has gone very well and expect to be acquitted and dismissed, the small chance of losing could carry extremely and unacceptably harsh penalties,” Fischer wrote in the email. “I have therefore decided not to take the risk and leave the US and enjoy life in another country where I have long been carefully planning a good, safe, secure and comfortable life.”
He was subsequently convicted in absentia and has been wanted for failure to appear, first-degree sexual assault, and flight to avoid prosecution since.