a multimillionaire who was convicted in 2009 of raping his 3-year-old daughter didn’t serve any jail time.And he’s now the subject of a lawsuit by his wife, who’s accusing him of sexually abusing his infant son and seeking damages for the trauma done to her daughter.
Instead of sentencing him to prison in the 2009 rape case, Superior Court Judge Jan Jurden let Robert Richards IV, the 46-year-old heir to the du Pont chemical fortune, walk free.
The judge offered the grandson of patriarch Irenee du Pont a plea of fourth-degree rape, a charge that doesn’t result in any jail time, and Richards accepted. Judge Jurden argued that Richards, who admitted to abusing his 3-year-old daughter in exchange for the plea, “wouldn’t fare well” in prison.
But the unemployed du Pont heir, who lives off a trust fund, doesn’t seem especially vulnerable at 6’4″ and 250+ pounds. And prison officials can easily keep at-risk inmates in protective custody or solitary confinement, away from all the other prisoners.
Some people are wondering whether Richards’ millions could have influenced his extra-light sentence.
