Well-known retired Lebanon dry cleaner Ricky Lynn “Rick” Troutman was sentenced on Wednesday to 24 to 48 months in state prison following his guilty plea in August to multiple charges of creating and disseminating pornographic images of children.
The sentence was imposed by Lancaster County Senior Judge Howard Knisely. All four Lebanon County Common Pleas Court judges had disqualified themselves from the case.
Knisely ordered Troutman to undergo individual and group counseling, register as a sex offender for 25 years under Meagan’s Law, and serve five years of consecutive state probation after his release from prison. The judge also prohibited contact with Troutman’s children and former wife, and not to be in the same area as the family upon release from prison.
Troutman, 68, operated Camelot Cleaners at 12th and Walnut streets in Lebanon for many years before his retirement in 2023.
He pleaded guilty on Aug. 27 to four felony charges of sexual abuse of children and a fifth felony charge of criminal use of a communication facility.
He was arrested in his home on Dec.15, 2023, after police identified him as the source of pornographic images of children uploaded to a Canadian instant messaging service. A search of his computers and phone uncovered about 1 million pornographic images, of which about 200,000 were initially believed to be illegal images of children, Lebanon County District Attorney Pier Hess Graf said shortly after Troutman was charged.
However, Assistant District Attorney Amy Mueller said after sentencing that the number of child pornography images found in Troutman’s possession was actually about 200 stills and “a handful” of videos.
Mueller declined to say whether any of those videos were of Troutman’s stepgrandchildren as his wife had suggested in a divorce action filed after his arrest.
Addressing the judge by reading from a prepared statement, Troutman expressed regret and apologized for what he called “a terrible mistake.” He said he never meant to hurt anyone, which elicited an expletive from a family member sitting in the gallery.
Knisely took exception to what he said was both sides using the word “mistake” to describe Troutman’s actions.
“I am appalled by the use of mistake,” the judge said prior to sentencing. “It was not a mistake, it’s a choice. A clear, specific choice to look at child pornography, to download child pornography, to send items to child pornographers and viewers that will be there forever.”
Four parents of his stepgrandchildren spoke during sentencing, most of them through tears. Each cited how Troutman destroyed their trust and devastated the family, adding that that they live every single day with the horror he caused them.
Each spoke of the terror of knowing that their private images will be on the dark web forever for other child pornographers to access. One parent asked, “How do you trust again after this?”
Prior to sentencing, Mueller said it was “scary” that someone who was known in the community would have hundreds of images of child pornography.
“He purported to love them but he traded (their images) with people he did not know for children he did not know,” said Muller. “I don’t blame them if they (the family) never forgive him.”
Troutman has been held in the Lebanon County Correctional Facility since his arrest, and will receive credit against his sentence for time served there, meaning he will be eligible for parole in one year.
He will initially be transported to the State Correctional Facility at Camp Hill, which is the statewide diagnostic and classification center for all males entering the prison system. He will be assigned to a state prison from there.
Read More:
- Retired city businessman faces child porn charges, trial scheduled for May
- Child pornography trial for retired city businessman postponed to September
- Former city businessman facing long prison sentence on child porn charges
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