A Montgomery County man was sentenced to 10 years in prison yesterday for impregnating his 14-year-old stepdaughter. The girl became pregnant after a judge allowed the man to move back into the girl's home following his release from jail for sexually abusing her when she was 9 and 10.
Sidney Ray Richardson, 53, of Germantown pleaded guilty in December to a third-degree sex offense. Montgomery prosecutors said he had sex with the girl while she was drunk and while he was on probation for sexually abusing her as a child.
While on probation for sexual abuse of his stepdaughter, Sidney Ray Richardson of Germantown impregnated the girl when she was 14. He got 10 years for that offense.
(Montgomery County Police Department)
|
|
Richardson's case gained public attention in 2002, when he went missing after his probation officer confronted him about taking a paternity test to see whether he had fathered his stepdaughter's baby girl. He was arrested in the District in June 2004 on a fugitive warrant.
Richardson lived with his wife and stepdaughter in 2001, after Montgomery Circuit Court Judge Durke G. Thompson allowed him to move home. Richardson's wife requested the move, but his therapist and probation officer did not support it, according to court records. About 10 months later, his stepdaughter gave birth, prosecutors said.
Before moving home, Richardson served 14 months of an 18-month jail sentence after pleading guilty in February 1998 to molesting his stepdaughter. Thompson began allowing Richardson to visit the girl's home in October 1999. The judge said that he did not believe Richardson would offend again and that the family was "suffering."
Thompson was later publicly reprimanded by a state judicial disciplinary commission for speaking about Richardson's case with a Post reporter. Thompson said he didn't realize the conversation would be published.
In ordering Richardson to serve 10 years in prison yesterday, Montgomery Circuit Court Judge Louise G. Scrivener imposed the maximum sentence, exceeding nonbinding state sentencing guidelines of two to five years. Prosecutors had argued that the case was especially "horrific" because Richardson's stepdaughter "has been exposed to the vilest of crimes perpetrated against a child."
Richardson's attorney, Deputy District Public Defender Brian D. Shefferman, had asked for a five-year sentence. Richardson said little at the 10-minute hearing but said he wanted to apologize.
Richardson could face more prison time Feb. 24, when Thompson is scheduled to sentence him for violating his probation in the first case by having sex with the girl again.
Assistant state's attorneys Kathy Knight and Donna Fenton said the stepdaughter, now 18, is raising her daughter. She told authorities she approached Richardson for sex after she had been drinking at a party.
Knight said the fact that the girl said the sex was consensual had no bearing on the case because she was under the age of consent.
"The sad fact is that when someone has been sexually abused as a child over a very long time, you sexualize the child," Knight said.
