Convicted Akron rapist who evaded justice in 1 case could get current rape charge dismissed

SUMMIT COUNTY, Ohio (WOIO) - A convicted rapist could be back on the streets in the next few weeks if a Summit County judge grants a motion for dismissal in the latest rape case against him.

The 19 investigative team discovered it’s not the first time this man has slipped through the cracks.

“I thought I was most likely gonna die that evening,” said Mary Ellen Bryan, an Akron mother and sexual assault survivor.

Thirty-two years ago, Mary Ellen Bryan reported to Akron police that she was brutally raped by a stranger, but the man whose DNA was found on her rape kit will never face justice for that crime.

“A man entered my bedroom,” she recalled. “I saw him at the door, and he immediately covered me with a sheet that he had gotten from my two-year-old’s bedroom.”

All these years later the crime still haunts her.

“Fear you know, a great deal of fear at night you know, and being alone I think that took a while to get over, that’s a lifelong thing,” Bryan admitted.

According to police reports the Akron mother was home with her four kids that night in June of 1991. Her husband was playing cards at her brother’s house when a man broke into her home through her window.

“I tried to fight him off and he suffocated me for some time with a pillow,” Bryan said. “He was kneeling on it, so I had no chance of resisting and then I was violated. He dragged me into the hall very closely to my 2-year-olds room and then he said he would shoot me if I got up.”

Bryan reported the alleged attack to Akron police right away and got a rape kit, but it took nearly 23 years before a detective finally found her kit wedged behind a shelf.

Finally, in 2014 she learned there was a hit on CODIS, but due to a technicality, justice was still out of reach.

The statute of limitations was up. At the time it was 20 years.

“I was disappointed, but he was in prison for another crime, so I knew that he was a criminal that was gonna see justice for one of his other crimes but yeah it was disappointing,” Bryan said.

The Summit County Prosecutor’s Office told 19 News that Bryan was a victim of Derrick Fischer and that the clock had run out to prosecute Fischer for Bryan’s rape.

Currently, the statute of limitations for sexual assault in Ohio is 25 years with an additional 5 years if there’s a DNA match.

Fischer, now 52 years old, was convicted of another rape a year after Bryans.

Police reports say in December of 1992, Fischer forced his way into another woman’s Akron home raped her, and beat her.

During the attack, the victim managed to call 911. Fischer ripped the phone cord out of the wall and continued to rape her.

When police arrived, they caught him naked with an erection. The victim was covered in blood. Fischer was found guilty.

“I was just very disturbed that he had not been caught for mine so that other people, unfortunately, suffered as well,” Bryan said.

In 2022 Fischer was arrested for yet another rape. The alleged assault happened in Barberton in 2010.

“I knew that he would continue because he was a very violent deviant person that I wasn’t surprised that someone like that continues to do acts like that it’s a part of their MO,” Bryan said. “It doesn’t stop with one victim.”

Fischer’s defense attorney filed a motion to dismiss the case arguing too much time had passed and claims Fischer will suffer irreparable prejudice because of the delay.

The woman, in this case, reported the rape right away and got a rape kit, but that kit was not submitted to BCI until 6 years later.

The defense also argued that some evidence in the case was no longer available to the defendant and that too much time had passed making it difficult for anyone to recall the details of the crime.

Teresa Stafford is the chief executive officer for the Hope and Healing Survivor Resource Center which includes the Rape Crisis Center for Summit and Medina Counties.

She said the case reminds her of another rape case out of Cleveland. A judge dropped rape charges against Demetrius Jones after his defense used the same argument.

Eventually, his case went to the Supreme Court, and they ruled to reinstate the rape charges.

“We have to look beyond just what’s in front of us and say hey what’s gonna happen if this individual isn’t held accountable within the court system because what we’re learning today is multiple victims have been offended by the same offender,” Stafford said.

Bryan is hopeful justice will be served in this case.

“Yes, I am worried, but I think that the judge will do the right thing for this victim,” she said. “I do believe that will happen.”

Fischer’s fate will be determined on April 12th.

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