Alex Michael Soderback, 26, of Richland Township, Bucks County, was sentenced Sept. 14 to 11 to 22 years in prison for the repeated sexual assault of a child. (Credit: Bucks County District Attorney’s office/Crimewatch)
A 26-year-old Richland Township man who pleaded guilty to raping a child was sentenced last week to 11 to 22 years in state prison and will have to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life.
Alex Michael Soderback, of Richland Township, pleaded guilty May 24 to rape of a child and involuntary deviate sexual intercourse of a victim less than 13 years old, according to a news release from the Bucks County District Attorney’s office.
Soderback appeared before Common Pleas Judge Charissa J. Liller on Sept. 14 and was sentenced by Liller to serve up to 22 years in state prison, the release said. He was further ordered to undergo a mental health evaluation, undergo sex offender treatment and have no contact with the victim and the victim’s family, or any unsupervised contact with anyone under the age of 18.
Soderback will also have to register as a sex offender and be monitored under Megan’s Law for the rest of his life, the DA’s office said.
The office said Soderback was charged after the Richland Township Police Department took a report from the victim in the case and the victim’s mother in August 2022.
The police investigation revealed that Soderback raped the victim “several times when he was around the ages of 5 and 7 at Soderback’s home in Richland Township,” the release said, noting that Soderback “would have been 20 to 21 years of age” at the time.
“Soderback at first told the detective in an interview that the child was the aggressor in making the sexual advances towards him,” the DA’s office said. However, at his sentencing, “Soderback admitted that he was the sexual aggressor and sexually assaulted the child for his own sexual gratification.”
The case was investigated the Richland Township Police Department, led by Detective Sergeant Ray Aleman, and was prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney David E. O’Beirne, the release said.
