By Heather Bell
RADFORD – A Radford man who faced a litany of sex crimes avoided conviction of those crimes through a plea agreement Friday and will instead be jailed on misdemeanor counts for operating a health care facility without a license.
Martin Riding, 67, was arrested in June 2019 on dozens of charges stemming from his running of a clinic called Renew For Life holistic medicine out of his home on Eighth Street in Radford. Friday, a plea agreement accepted in Radford Circuit Court included his conviction on 16 misdemeanor counts of practicing a profession or performing acts without proper license.
Riding was sentenced to serve 12 months in jail with no time suspended and was fined $3,200. He was ordered to have no contact with the victims and cannot perform health care work or health related businesses.
Riding had faced a total of 73 charges, including 32 felony and 32 misdemeanor counts of performing procedures without a state license, one felony charge of taking indecent liberties with a minor, seven felony charges of animate object sexual penetration and one misdemeanor count of indecent exposure. In a statement following the acceptance of the plea agreement, Radford Commonwealth’s Attorney Chris Rehak said convictions on the felonies posed a unique set of challenges.
“Any case with 35 separate victims present a host of unique challenges, but these bizarre facts significantly complicated the commonwealth’s legal strategies, trial preparations and plea negotiations,” said Rehak. “Most victims were naive, vulnerable and find themselves understandably embarrassed yet angry. This conviction agreement means those victims avoid court and preserve their privacy. After considering victim input, I decided this compromise was best for all involved.”
“The plea agreement ensured convictions and eliminates the lingering appeals surely to have followed,” he added. “The object sexual penetration crimes required proving both intimidation and lack of consent beyond a reasonable doubt – just two of the issues which became increasingly problematic.”
“Unfortunately, Virginia’s medical profession licensure laws provided their own set of difficulties,” he continued. “[The] defendant contested the definition of invasive procedures and may have even been exempt under Virginia Code section 54.1-3001, which protects and excludes ‘“any individual who provides stroking of the hands, feet, or ears or the use of touch, words, and directed movement, including healing touch, therapeutic touch, mind-body centering, orthobionomy, traeger therapy, reflexology, polarity therapy, reiki, qigong, muscle activation techniques, or practices with the primary purpose of affecting energy systems of the human body.”
