commentary by Patrick H. Moore
Suppose that on one side of your family you are an heir of one of America’s richest and most prestigious industrialist families. Then suppose that on the other side you are the son of a prominent Delaware corporate lawyer. You are what they call “filthy rich” and you are not expected to work. Somewhere along the way you are exposed to perversion. Either that or you expose yourself to perversion, choose perversion, or perversion comes to you.
In any event, after you get married and have children, you develop the alarming habit of sneaking into your 3-year-old daughter’s room at night in your tony mansion and masturbating (presumably with one hand) while digitally penetrating your 3-year-old with the fingers of your other hand.
Although you had told your daughter “to keep what you are doing to her a secret”, suppose she senses that something is wrong and, in October of 2007, goes to her grandmother and describes as best she can (remember she is only 3-years-old) what you are doing to her. Your daughter’s grandmother then informs your mother and she takes your daughter to her pediatrician who is told about the abuse.
A few months later, you are arrested by the New Castle County police. Your name is Robert H. Richards IV. Your father, Robert H. Richards III, was a partner in the prestigious corporate law firm Richards Layton & Finger until his 2008 retirement, and you are the great grandson of du Pont family patriarch Irenee du Pont, the chemical baron.
Then comes the peculiar part of this dark scenario. Your case is treated as an “Affluenza” scenario and you receive Probation rather than jail or prison time because the judge believes that based on your personal characteristics, you would not “fare well” in prison.
Ashley Alman of the Huffington Post writes:
A Delaware man convicted of raping his three-year-old daughter only faced probation after a state Superior Court judge ruled he “will not fare well” in prison.
In her decision, Judge Jan Jurden suggested Robert H. Richards IV would benefit more from treatment. Richards, who was charged with fourth-degree rape in 2009, is an unemployed heir living off his trust fund. The light sentence has only became public as the result of a subsequent lawsuit filed by his ex-wife, which charges that he penetrated his daughter with his fingers while masturbating, and subsequently assaulted his son as well.
The lawsuit filed by Richards’ ex-wife states that he admitted to assaulting both his infant son and his daughter between 2005 and 2007. He was initially indicted on two counts of second-degree child rape, serious felonies that would result in 10-year mandatory prison sentences per count. Bail was set at $60,000.
Richards appears to have quickly sensed which way the wind was blowing. He hired one of the state’s top law firms and was ultimately offered a plea deal of one count of fourth-degree rape, which carries no mandatory minimum prison sentence. Richards naturally accepted the plea offer and admitted to the assault.
Judge Jan Jurden
Superior Court Judge Jan Jurden sentenced Richards to eight years in prison but suspended the sentence, replacing it with Level II probation, which requires monthly visits with a case officer.
At the sentencing, Judge Jurden stated that Richards would benefit from participating in a sex offenders’ rehabilitation program rather than serving any prison time.
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One can certainly make a cogent argument that all sex offenders would benefit more from “participating in a sex offenders program rather than serving any prison time.” The fact remains, however, that most sex offenders do go to prison, often for extremely long stretches. And, rarely do those sentenced to prison fare well while incarcerated.
Ashley Alman writes:
Delaware Public Defender Brendan J. O’Neill told The News Journal that it was “extremely rare” for an individual to fare well in prison. “Prison is to punish, to segregate the offender from society, and the notion that prison serves people well hasn’t proven to be true in most circumstances,” he said, adding that the light sentence for the member of the one percent raised questions about “how a person with great wealth may be treated by the system.” (Though perhaps it provides more answers than questions.)
According to the The News Journal, several attorneys claimed treatment over jail time was a deal more typically granted to drug addicts, not sex offenders.
Kendall Marlowe, executive director of the National Association for Counsel for Children, told The News Journal that sex offenders are jailed for the safety of the children they threaten.
“Child protection laws are there to safeguard children, and adults who knowingly harm children should be punished,” she said. “Our prisons should be more rehabilitative environments, but the prison system’s inadequacies are not a justification for letting a child molester off the hook.”
In her lawsuit, the children’s mother Tracy Richards, who along with her two children now lives in a rental home, is seeking compensatory and punitive damages for assault, negligence, and intentional and negligent infliction of emotional distress on the children.
The suit also sets forth that proven abuse of Richard’s daughter and alleged assault of his son has caused his children ‘long-term injuries,’ which perhaps include depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, sexual dysfunction and shame.
The lawsuit suggests that whatever “repressed memories of some instances of the abuse the daughter suffered,” will likely “begin to surface” with treatment.
“Making matters worse this self admitted rapist and child abuser has not paid a single penny to these children for his crimes. There is no provision whatsoever for them for their future after they turn 18,” said Attorney Thomas Crumplar, who is representing Tracy Richards.
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It’s hard to avoid the strong probability that this is a case of two-tiered justice in which Richards, due to his conspicuous wealth, is getting a sweetheart deal that less well-heeled members of society would probably not receive.
While covering cases of sexual abuse on this crime blog, however, we have noted that sentences in cases of this nature vary widely and that although some sex offenders receive truly harsh sentences, others seem to escape with probation, counseling and permanent sex offender registration status. I would be curious to know if Robert H. Richards IV, based on his having pleaded guilty to 4th-degree-rape, will be required to register permanently as a sex offender once he has completed his treatment program.