Du Pont Family Heir Convicted of Raping Daughter Sentenced to… (Wait for It) Probation – Also Accused of Abusing Son
April 1st, 2014Is the judge in on it? Compromised in some way?
From The News Journal:
A Superior Court judge who sentenced a wealthy du Pont heir to probation for raping his 3-year-old daughter noted in her order that he “will not fare well” in prison and needed treatment instead of time behind bars, court records show.
Judge Jan Jurden’s sentencing order for Robert H. Richards IV suggested that she considered unique circumstances when deciding his punishment for fourth-degree rape. Her observation that prison life would adversely affect Richards was a rare and puzzling rationale, several criminal justice authorities in Delaware said. Some also said her view that treatment was a better idea than prison is a justification typically used when sentencing drug addicts, not child rapists.
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Via: Detroit Free Press:
A du Pont family heir who raped his 3-year-old daughter nearly a decade ago but received no prison time now faces a lawsuit from his former wife that accuses him of sexually abusing his toddler son.
Robert H. Richards IV, 47, who is supported by a trust fund and who paid $1.8 million for his 5,800-square-foot mansion near Winterthur Museum, pleaded guilty in 2008 to fourth-degree rape of his daughter. Currently on probation, he has never been charged with crimes against his son.
The lawsuit provides in-depth details about a child rape case that Delaware authorities never disclosed publicly and did not receive media attention.
Richards is a scion of two prominent Delaware families — the du Pont family who built the chemical empire and the Richards family who co-founded the prestigious corporate law firm Richards Layton & Finger. Du Pont family patriarch Irenee du Pont is his great grandfather. His father, Robert H. Richards III, was a partner in the law firm until his 2008 retirement.
Currently unemployed, Richards IV also lists a home in the exclusive North Shores neighborhood near Rehoboth Beach as a residence, according to the state’s sex abuse registry.
On Tuesday, nearly six years after Richards’ felony conviction, his ex-wife, Tracy Richards, filed a Superior Court lawsuit on behalf of her children seeking compensatory and punitive damages for assault, negligence, and intentional and negligent infliction of emotional distress on his two children. Abuse of the children occurred at both the Greenville and North Shores homes, the lawsuit alleged.
