By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
CHEHALIS – A 49-year-old Centralia man was sentenced today to 20 months in prison for indecent liberties in a case in which a young woman said he molested her while she was sleeping in his fifth-wheel trailer while she was withdrawing from heroin.
Keith D. Keene pleaded guilty on May 10 to the felony offense, but made an Alford plea, in which he admitted no wrongdoing.
He appeared in Lewis County Superior Court this morning before Judge Andrew Toynbee, with his lawyer Don Blair.
Keene was charged earlier this year in the case detectives began investigating last July following a tip from an inmate at the Lewis County Jail who said they knew of multiple women sexually assaulted by Keene.
The original charges included the cases of two other women in their 20s who told of similar instances, but those charges were dismissed as part of the plea deal, according to Lewis County Deputy Prosecutor Melissa Bohm.
The victim in the case in which Keene was convicted was 19 years old in November 2015 and told police he had offered her to use his bed and when she she woke up to Keene pressing himself against her, she immediately got up and went outside. She said it happened just before she went to rehab.
The judge gave Keene credit for 32 days of time already served and imposed three years of supervision after his release.
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For background, read “Centralian accused of taking advantage of multiple younger women” from Saturday February 11, 2017, here [1]