As Michael Redpath celebrated his last day of
freedom with a gathering at his North End home, his neighbors
quietly rejoiced. Several women who live near Redpath’s
house on North 22nd Street tell Illinois
Times that the convicted child
molester would come to their homes uninvited, offering to help with
yardwork and other chores. They say that they always declined. They
also say that they warned children to stay away from him. Redpath’s reputation for sexual
impropriety was well known, the women say. All spoke on the
condition of anonymity, explaining that they fear retribution from
Redpath’s family. One brother is a Springfield alderman whose
ward includes their homes. Another is a retired Springfield police
officer, and Redpath’s late father was a high-ranking
Springfield police administrator. Two women who live on Redpath’s street
say that he sometimes sat on his front porch clad only in
underwear. “White boxers — that’s
disgusting,” says one neighbor, adding that he would stare at
women while barely dressed. On Dec. 13, the neighbors say, there was a
get-together at Redpath’s home, with more than a half-dozen
vehicles parked outside his modest home. The last guest lingered
past 10 p.m. It was a chance to say goodbye. The next day, looking
every bit a broken man, Redpath appeared in Sangamon County Circuit
Court and was sentenced to three years in prison for sexual abuse
and fined $200. If he behaves himself, he could be out in 18
months. “Good luck to you,” Judge Robert
J. Eggers said after pronouncing sentence. Redpath, who had been
free on bond, was immediately taken into custody. He waved to two
men in the audience who had accompanied him to court as deputies escorted him out a side door. As part of a plea agreement, prosecutors
dropped the most serious charges: that Redpath forced a 5-year-old
girl to perform oral sex on him and raped the 10-year-old daughter
of a former girlfriend. Each of those charges of predatory criminal
sexual assault carries a minimum six-year sentence, but prosecutors
agreed to the three-year term in exchange for a guilty plea to a
less serious crime with a seven-year maximum penalty. Redpath could
have been sentenced to probation, but his attorneys began the
sentencing proceeding by telling Eggers that they were withdrawing
their request for no prison time. Redpath appeared subdued throughout the
proceeding, saying only “Yes, sir” and “No,
sir” in response to queries from the judge. He showed no
emotion when the mother of his victim, now 16, told the court that
her family still has love and God in their lives but that Redpath
has stolen all of their laughter. “I miss that pain-free
laughter,” she said as her daughter looked on, stoic, from
the front row. The woman, whose own mother had died of cancer just
four days earlier, also told the judge that she’s angry at
the system for not protecting her child. “Even my mother, who
we just buried yesterday, suffered because of him,” said the
woman, who trembled afterward and appeared on the edge of tears. Redpath has a long history of sexual offenses
against women and children. Prosecutors filed no charges in 1995 after
a Riverton woman accused him of raping her. Less than a year later, he
tried luring a 12-year-old Springfield girl into his car, but
prosecutors plea-bargained the case, allowing him to plead guilty to a
misdemeanor charge of aggravated assault. In a recent interview with Illinois Times,
State’s Attorney John Schmidt, who personally handled the
abduction case before becoming Sangamon County’s top prosecutor,
insisted that the plea bargain resulted in consequences for Redpath,
who was given a 180-day jail sentence. However, the conviction
wasn’t serious enough to keep Redpath from getting a state job as
a highway-maintenance worker. Nor did Redpath face any punishment for
sucker-punching an acquaintance in a bar while on probation for that
crime. Redpath is now considered a first-time sex offender who will be
required to register with police as a sex offender when he is released. “I think he deserved more time, but
I’m glad to see him off the streets,” says the father
of the girl, now 9, whom Redpath forced himself on in 2001.
“I think you kind of take what you can get. I think when he
gets back out, he’ll reoffend. I feel sorry for anyone who
comes in contact with him.”
The father, whom Illinois Times is not
identifying to protect his daughter’s anonymity,
was on the Lanphier High School wrestling team with Redpath more than
20 years ago. There was no hint at that sentencing that the two men
knew each other. “He wouldn’t even look at me,” the
father says. Illinois Times received
scores of e-mails and phone calls after publishing a Dec. 8 story
about Redpath and how he’s skated through the legal system
[Bruce Rushton, “Predator”]. Without exception, almost
every individual declined to have his or her name published. One
exception is Kelly Milner, a former tenant of Redpath’s who
lived next door to him in a North End duplex for about three years
in the late 1990s. He was the landlord from hell, she says. “When I would take the rent over to his
apartment, he’d answer the door in his underwear and start
rubbing himself,” Milner says. “He rubbed his crotch in
front of me all the time — he would constantly tell me that
we could take the rent out in trade. There were times I’d go
outside, I’d wear shorts and a tank top, and he drenched me
with a hose.” When she opened a nail salon in her home, she
says, he would stand on his porch in his underwear as customers
departed. “Needless to say, I lost clients because of
him,” she says. On one occasion, Miller says, Redpath got
physical. After an African-American friend stayed with
her, Milner says that Redpath, who had been drinking, came over and
told her that black people weren’t allowed on the premises.
“He threw a fit,” Milner says. “He grabbed my
arm. He left a bruise on my arm.” Milner says that although
she called police, nothing happened to Redpath, whom responding
officers called by name. “The police just told him to get his
drunk ass back in his apartment,” she says — and that
was it. “I was infuriated when I read about his
sentence [in a daily newspaper],” Milner says. “I
can’t believe he only got three years. He’s just
absolutely sick.”
This article appears in Dec 15-21, 2005.
