Former Tennessee Pastor David Richards received a light sentence after being convicted of repeatedly raping his fourteen-year-old adopted daughter. After all, nothing says “good Christian man” like rape and incest.
Richards, who is also a former caseworker with Smoky Mountain Children’s home in Sevierville, TN, was found guilty in Knox County by a jury of five men and seven women in February 2019 on nine felony counts, including rape, incest and sexual battery by an authority figure concerning Amber Richards, his (then) 14-year-old adopted daughter.
Judge Steven Sword, in what many feel is a disgraceful miscarriage of justice, sentenced Richards to just only twelve years behind bars for raping his then fourteen-year-old daughter over and over again over the course of several years. Prosecutors argued that the harsh and horrifying nature of Richards crimes merited the maximum sentence of seventy-two years in prison. However, the judge, citing support from Christian ministry and his church and family, felt differently and gave Richards a much lighter sentence. In fact, Judge Sword appeared to show sympathy for the rapist. He mentioned the “good work” the Christian rapist had done in an attempt to validate the lenient sentence.
Prosecutors sought the maximum term of 72 years behind bars.
The judge acknowledged Richards’ longtime ministry — he began a Bible study among his fellow inmates while jailed at the Knox County Detention Facility — and the support he still receives as mitigating factors.
More than 30 people sat on the defendant’s side of the courtroom in a show of support, including David Thompson, who shared ministry duties with Richards at My Father’s House Church of God in Lenoir City.
“I find it impossible for me to believe he’s guilty of this,” said Thompson, who echoed the call for leniency. “His business needs him. His family needs him. Our church needs him.”1
RELATED:
Rarely are victims of sexual abuse identified in court, but David Richards’ adopted daughter Amber decided to go public and make a statement after a jury handed down Richards conviction. Amber, clearly traumatized, sat in court during the sentencing with her biological parents and several other supporters.
The Knoxville News Sentinel typically does not identify victims in sexual abuse cases, but Amber Richards chose to speak publicly after the February verdicts.
She sat on the opposite side of the courtroom Thursday, joined by a half-dozen others, including her biological parents, who she has reconnected with in recent years.
“I wanted to throw my body away,” Amber Richards said as she delivered her victim impact statement Thursday.
“Not a day goes by that I don’t, in some way, think of what he did to me. … I firmly believe if given the opportunity, he would victimize another young girl.1
Richards claimed he did not rape his adopted daughter and maintained his innocence, but jury finds him guilty.
David Richards declared his innocence throughout the entire trial and after being found guilty by a jury:
“I stand before you convicted of crimes I did not commit,” said David Richards, 41. “I simply believe the system just erred in this case.
“I’m not sure why I’m here. … but I assume it’s for His purpose.1
A Knox County jury of five men and seven women took less than three hours to deliberate before they found Richards guilty. Prosecutors, according to the Knoxville News Sentinel, built their case around the evidence they uncovered during their investigation. Many questions remain, like where was Richards former wife, who left him before he was arrested and did not testify in the case.
David Richards and his then-wife took in Amber Richards and her three biological siblings as foster children in 2008. They joined a household that already included the couple’s daughter and an adopted son.
At the time, David Richards was employed as a case worker with Smoky Mountain Children’s Home in Sevierville. He also served as a minister at My Father’s House Church of God in Lenoir City.
David Richards and his wife soon adopted the girl and her older sister, Megan Richards, through the children’s home. The couple has since separated.
“I didn’t know what I was doing, but I parented them as best I could,” the 41-year-old defendant said, taking the witness stand in his own defense Friday. “My wife left them, with no notice, no explanation and never talked to them again.1
It is reported that Richards adopted daughter, Amber, decided to report his crimes to authorities when she was sixteen years of age.
Amber Richards, then 16, reported the alleged abuse to her high school guidance counselor Dec. 3. 2013. She claimed she had woken up that morning to find Richards standing next to her bed, pulling her hand inside his pants.
Authorities were notified and the teen sat for a forensic interview at Childhelp Children’s Center of East Tennessee the next day. Amber Richards claimed the abuse had begun with inappropriate touching in 2011, when she was 14, and escalated to raping her several times in their East Knox County home since the summer of 2013 – always while she pretended to be asleep.
“I didn’t want to see him, I didn’t want to open my eyes,” she testified. “I just wanted it to be over.”
The teen told authorities about various places where they might find semen stains in her bedroom – a bed comforter, the bed frame and a purple rug.
She also described a text she had received from him two months earlier, about taking their relationship “to the next level.1
The sheriff’s office promptly began an investigation after receiving Amber’s report.
The Knox County Sheriff’s Office executed a search warrant at David Richards’ Millertown Pike home Dec. 5, 2013. Stains believed to be seminal fluid were found on the girl’s bedroom rug, at the foot of her mattress and on a wooden drawer incorporated into the bed frame.
Investigators found a bare mattress on her bed.
“It had been completely stripped,” said KCSO lead investigator Lt. Allen Merritt. “It kind of sent off bells and whistles.”
The girl’s bedding was located in the home’s laundry room dryer, washed and dried. Bedding in the other bedrooms appeared untouched.
Forensic testing later verified the presence of spermatozoa in one of three samples taken from the bed frame drawer. The portion of the sample containing sperm was insufficient for DNA testing, according to the forensic biology report.
The “non-sperm fraction” of that same seminal fluid sample, however, contained a mixture of at least two DNA profiles, neither of which matched the girl. The “major contributor profile” matched David Richards, the report states.
Investigators also seized David and Amber Richards’ iPhones. David Richards had administrative access to both phones through a shared Apple iCloud account. When KCSO investigators attempted to inspect the phones, they displayed setup screens indicating a factory reset option had been activated for both. It could not be determined who activated the factory resets.
On the witness stand, David Richards had no explanation for why his DNA was found anywhere in his daughter’s bedroom.
He said he is incapable of producing spermatozoa, though; Richards had a vasectomy in 2001, he testified.
Richard’s attorney, Gregg Harrison, introduced a 2018 physician’s report as evidence supporting the claim1
In addition to the DNA report, there was reportedly other evidence given to the jury for consideration. An investigation by the sheriff demonstrates that Richards most likely also had a relationship with Amber’s sister, Megan.
Merritt testified he spotted two toothbrushes in the father’s bathroom, and women’s makeup in the bedroom. The bedding on David Richards’ bed was pulled back on both sides.
“It would lead me to believe two people had slept in this bed,” Merritt said.
A gift bag containing women’s lingerie and a small, stuffed teddy bear were sitting on the father’s bedroom floor.
David Richards told investigators at the time he wasn’t dating anyone.
Under cross-examination Friday, however, the defendant claimed he had dated three women around that time, including one unidentified woman who had stayed overnight at some point when the children were away with friends.
“To be clear, today’s the first time you’ve mentioned that, right?” Knox County Assistant District Attorney Nathaniel Ogle asked.
When investigators arrived to search the Richards home that night, they found David Richards and two glasses of wine by the sofa. But no girlfriend.
“The only two people in the residence when we got there were David Richards and Megan Richards,” Merritt said1
However, Megan did not testify in support of her sister, she testified against her.
Megan Richards testified she would have done anything to protect her younger sister had she suspected something was wrong.
“Absolutely – whatever it took to get her out of there,” she said.
Amber and Megan Richards had lived together among 17 foster homes in three states over the span of a decade, and she was “extremely protective” of her sibling, Megan Richards said. Megan, who was nineteen at the time, was still living in the home, and claimed she was never suspicious of anything inappropriate taking place. She also denied that Amber had shared with her any abuse allegations before she reported them to the police.
“That is not true,” Megan Richards testified.
Her cross-examination also revealed that Megan Richards, now 24, currently shares a home with David Richards in Lenoir City, and works as an office assistant at his trucking business, Purpose Transport LLC.
“You can infer whatever you want from the facts,” Ogle told jurors during his closing argument. “But it’s not a typical father-daughter relationship. … It’s an awful lot of smoke.1
This is still not over – Amber also has a $17 million civil lawsuit pending against Richards and Smoky Mountain Children’s Home, which includes three other staff members there.
Amber Richards said she ultimately hopes to use her experience to counsel other victims of sexual abuse.
“I’m not going to let him ruin my life,” she said. “You can’t keep me down … I will keep fighting.
“He messed with the wrong girl.1
An online petition calling for Knox County Criminal Court Judge Steve Sword’s removal from the bench by Tennessee Governor Bill Lee quickly amassed more than 23,000 signatures. The petition is retaliation over his apparent leniency in the sentencing of David Lynn Richards. Sword declined to comment on the nationwide criticism now surrounding his decision because state law prohibits judges from speaking publicly on pending cases. The case remains pending during a 30-day window after sentencing to file a motion for new trial.
