Former Bradford fire captain sentenced to eight years in prison for rape 

By JAMIE L. COSTA

Monitor staff

Published: 03-08-2023 6:03 PM

A former Bradford fire captain was sentenced to eight years in prison on Wednesday after he was found guilty of sexually assaulting two Concord women.

Between the summer of 2019 and the spring of 2020, Russell “Rob” Steiz, 53, of East Main Street in Bradford, was accused of restraining and sexually assaulting two women, aged 48 and 57 at the time. 

Steiz met the women on Tinder, a popular online dating app, and assaulted them at his home and at his former place of work on Commerce Way in Pembroke, according to court documents.

In June 2019, the first victim agreed to meet Steiz for coffee at the Starbucks on Loudon Road in Concord where he brought her back to his vehicle in the parking lot and attempted to remove her shirt. She later accompanied him to a cleaning service facility 10 minutes away where he sexually assaulted her on one of the office desks.  

The following spring in May 2020, a different woman agreed to meet Steiz for dinner at what she thought was the location of a restaurant but instead, he had given her the address to his home, which he shared with his elderly mother. 

After dinner, they were sitting around a fire pit in the backyard when he forced himself on her. According to her testimony, she told him that she didn’t want to do that on the first date and began screaming and crying for help. “Nobody can hear you,” he said, before he dragged her to a nearby camper and sexually assaulted her a second time, according to court documents. 

It wasn’t until the winter of 2021 that both victims came forward with their testimony. Steiz was indicted in June 2021 for two counts of aggravated felonious sexual assault. 

In addition to a maximum sentence of eight years in state prison, Steiz will be placed on a 10-year suspended sentence following his release which states that if he were to commit a crime while on probation, another maximum eight-year prison sentence could be imposed.

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