FLASHBACK: Beau Biden Agreed to Lenient Plea Deal for DuPont Heir Who Raped 3-Year-Old — No Prison Time
A well-connected heir to the Dupont fortune got no prison time after admitting to raping his three-year-old daughter, thanks in part to the actions of then-Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden, son of Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden.
It was February 6, 2009, when Robert H. Richards IV, the great-grandson of Irénée du Pont, the heir to his family’s fortune, admitted to the crime, The News Journal reported.
Richards was charged with two counts of second-degree rape in October 2007, punishable by a minimum of 20 years in prison if convicted
“Attorney General Beau Biden’s office indicted him on the same charges in January 2008,” explained the News Journal. “But in June of that year, days before a scheduled trial, [prosecutor Renee] Hrivnak allowed Richards to plead guilty to one count of fourth-degree rape, which carries no mandatory prison time with sentencing guidelines that recommend a sentence of zero to 30 months in prison.”
“I feel horrible what I did to my daughter,” the defendant said during his hearing in front of Superior Court Judge Jan R. Jurden.
“I feel very remorseful and very sad about what, the damage that I’ve done to her. There’s no excuse for what I’ve done to her. It’s horrible and, and I’d like probation, like [attorney Eugene] Maurer has said,” he begged.
The judge gave him an eight-year prison sentence but suspended all of it in favor of Level-II probation which would require an intensive treatment program at an inpatient psychiatric clinic in Massachusetts and monthly meetings with a probation officer.
“The only reason I’m doing this is so that probation can be transferred, and I don’t know what we’re going to do if Massachusetts won’t accept it,” the judge said.
“Probation can be transferred to Massachusetts in order for you to complete this Massachusetts program and you will successfully complete that. That is a condition of you being out on probation,” she said. “You understand that?”
“The intent of the court is that you get to Massachusetts and you successfully complete that treatment as soon as possible,” she reiterated.
But Richards did not complete the program. He did not even start the program, The News Journal reported.
Which begs the question, who signed off on this?
The answer is the late son of Joe Biden, Beau Biden.
As rape is a state crime, the plea deal required the office of the state’s attorney general, which at the time was headed by Beau Biden, to agree to the deal.
At first Biden’s office hit Richards with two charges of second-degree rape. But then his office offered Richards a plea deal to have him cop to fourth-degree rape and recommended probation for the DuPont heir.
“Child sexual abuse cases are among the most serious cases a prosecutor handles. The harm to the victim is profound,” the late Biden said in an op-ed defending the deal.
More: https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/carminesabia/2020/10/22/flashback-beau-biden-agreed-to-lenient-plea-deal-for-dupont-heir-who-raped-3-year-old-no-prison-time-n1076224