How Robert H. Richards IV Got Away With Crime

Family Background

Robert H. Richards IV is the great-grandson of chemical magnate Irénée du Pont and the heir to the du Pont family fortune. He has been convicted of molesting his child.

The Du Ponts are a well-known American family whose roots go back to Pierre Samuel du Pont de Nemours (1739–1817). Since the middle of the 19th century, when it started making money in the gunpowder business, it has been one of the wealthiest families in the United States.

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, it got richer through the chemical industry and the auto industry, and it had big stakes in DuPont, General Motors, and other companies.

Robert H. Richards IV is a member of two well-known Delaware families: the du Pont family, which built the worldwide chemical empire, and the Richards family, which co-founded the prestigious corporate law firm Richards Layton & Finger.

Irenee du Pont, the head of the Du Pont family, is his great-grandfather. Robert H. Richards III, his father, was a partner in the law firm until he retired in 2008. He doesn't have a job right now, so he lives in his $1.8 million mansion on his large trust fund.

Robert H. Richards IV's -A child Molester

The fact that he raped his daughter was first discovered in December 2007, when the girl, who was 5 at the time, told her grandmother that Richards had sexually abused her.

The girl told her grandmother, Donna Burg, that her dad said it was "our little secret," but she didn't want "my daddy touching me anymore."

According to the arrest warrant, the girl said that her father had abused her in the bedrooms of both her mother and her brother.

Tracy Richards, who was then married to him, told police that when she confronted him about abusing their daughter, he told her it was an accident and he wouldn't do it again.

Richards said that between 2005 and 2007, he sexually abused both his baby son and his young daughter. Richards was first charged with two counts of second-degree child rape, which are felonies that must be punished with 10 years in prison per count. He was freed on $60,000 bail while his charges were being worked out.

Richards hired one of the best law firms in the state, and he was offered a deal to plead guilty to one count of fourth-degree rape, which has no minimum prison sentence. He agreed, and he admitted to assaulting her.

Richards was found guilty of raping his 3-year-old daughter, but judge Jan Jurden only gave him probation. Jurden wrote in her order that he "will not fare well" in prison and suggested that he should get help instead of going to jail.

Court records show that when Judge Jan Jurden decided how to punish Robert H. Richards IV for fourth-degree rape, she took into account his unique situation. Several criminal justice officials in Delaware were confused by her claim that Richards would be hurt by prison life. They said that her idea that treatment would be better than prison is usually used to sentence drug addicts, not child molesters.

Richards, who had never been in trouble with the law before, got an eight-year prison sentence, but all of it was suspended for probation.

She wrote in her order, "Defendant will not fare well in Level 5 [prison] setting."

Richards is between 250 and 276 pounds, according to court records. He is 6 feet, 4 inches tall. It's ridiculous to say that he wouldn't do well in prison. People who do horrible things to young, innocent children deserve to be punished for their crimes.

Richards was told by Jurden to go to a facility in Massachusetts for in-patient treatment, but he has not done so.

In April 2014, Superior Court Judge Richard F. Stokes denied Richards' request to seal the court files. He said that the proceedings were open to the public and that this was a First Amendment issue. By the end of June 2014, it was said that the lawsuit had been settled in a way that kept the details secret.