Judge Blamed For Sending Sex Abuser Home in Md.
By Phuong Ly
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, August 29, 2002; Page B01
A Montgomery County judge has angered law enforcement officials by allowing a sex offender to live with the stepdaughter he abused, despite a prosecutor's objection. His return allegedly resulted in further sexual contact that came to light after the girl, now 15, gave birth in November.
Police have been searching since May for the stepfather, Sidney R. Richardson, 51, who is charged with child abuse, a third-degree sex offense and violating probation in
the earlier case, which was resolved in March 1998 with guilty pleas.
The current charges stem from alleged sexual contact between Richardson and his stepdaughter after he was released from jail in 1999 and allowed to live with the girl under an order by Circuit Court Judge Durke G. Thompson.
[...]
Richardson was sentenced to 18 months in jail after pleading guilty to child abuse and a third-degree sex offense for having sexual contact with the girl when she was 9 and 10. In October 1999, after Richardson was released, Thompson allowed him to periodically visit with his wife and stepdaughter, over the objection of an assistant state's attorney. In January 2001, Thompson let Richardson to move back into the family home.
[...]
Two years ago, Thompson angered women's groups when he reproached the parents of an 11-year-old sexual assault victim during the sentencing hearing for the girl's
assailant. "It takes two to tango," Thompson said, referring to the girl's correspondence with men on the Internet before the assault.
Then in March, Thompson, a judge since 1994, created controversy by overturning a jury's guilty verdict in a rape case. Thompson said the victim, an illegal immigrant
from Indonesia, might have been seeking revenge against the defendant, who had been her boyfriend, because he refused to marry her.
Thursday, August 29, 2002
Sometimes I'm at a loss for snarky comments.