Berkeley man charged with raping stranger near Concord BART station

Amy Larson
·2 min read

(KRON) — A woman was walking near the North Concord BART station when she was attacked by a stranger, forced to the ground, and raped, according to investigators.

Police said the brazen attack happened just before 6:25 p.m. on April 8 along the station’s BART Linear Park trail. The woman fought back until the man eventually fled into the BART station, police said. “The victim and a witness were able to follow the suspect and called the police,” Concord Police Department wrote.

CPD and BART Police Department officers swarmed the station and arrested Larry Dean Ridge Jr., 40, of Berkeley, on a BART train.

Ridge was arraigned in court Thursday afternoon to face felony rape and assault charges. He had been released from jail just four days before the Concord BART station attack, court records show.

He was arrested last month in Millbrae after he slapped a woman on her buttocks at the Millbrae BART station and followed her as she tried to walk away, according to the San Mateo County District Attorney’s Office. The 35-year-old woman yelled at the stranger, threatened to use pepper spray, and called 911 on March 20. Ridge was booked into jail.

On April 4, Ridge pleaded no contest in a San Mateo County courtroom to sexual battery for the Millbrae incident. Judge Hugo Borja sentenced Ridge to one year of probation. He was also sentenced to 32 days in jail, however he was granted 32 days credit because of time already served behind bars and good conduct, court records state. As a result, he was freed from custody.

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The accused rapist is also a convicted murderer, Concord police said.

Ridge was convicted in 2005 of second-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison. Ridge was freed from prison sometime after 2019 because of a change in California law, according to prosecutors.

Ridge is currently back behind bars at Martinez Detention Facility and his bail is set at $1.25 million.

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