Du Pont Heir Robert Richards IV Rapes His 3-Year-Old Daughter And Gets Away With It

Robert Richards IV, a 47-year-old man who stands to inherit the DuPont family fortune, managed to avoid spending time behind bars even after he was convicted of rape in 2008. A February 2009 sentencin...
Du Pont Heir Robert Richards IV Rapes His 3-Year-Old Daughter And Gets Away With It
Written by Val Powell
  • Robert Richards IV, a 47-year-old man who stands to inherit the DuPont family fortune, managed to avoid spending time behind bars even after he was convicted of rape in 2008.

    A February 2009 sentencing order in Richards’ criminal rape case shows that Judge Jan Jurden of the Delaware Superior Court concluded that Richards “will not fare well in Level 5 setting” or in other words, in prison. Richards was originally sentenced to eight years in jail, but the punishment was suspended in favor of having Richards pay the Delaware Violent Crimes Compensation Board with $4,395 and putting him on Level II probation for eight years instead. He was also ordered to seek treatment for his sexual disorder.

    Richards sexually abused his 3-year-old daughter Mariana and he was charged with fourth-degree rape, to which he pleaded guilty, a move that helped him dodge prison. It was believed that the abuse continued until Mariana was around five years old.

    Richards had told his daughter not to tell anyone what he had done to her, but eventually Mariana told her grandmother, who then alerted her mother Tracy. At that time the case received little attention from the media, but the details have been revealed in the light of a lawsuit filed by Tracy, now Richards’ ex-wife.

    Tracy filed a lawsuit on March 18, accusing her ex-husband of also sexually abusing their son Robert V, who was believed to be sexually abused when he was approximately one and a half years old until he was three and a half years old.

    In 2010, there had been claims that Richards had abused his infant son, but the Delaware police investigating the case found no evidence supporting the allegations. Investigators will now be taking another look at the case, because according to the lawsuit, Richards had admitted during a polygraph test to also abusing his son. The test was part of Richards’ probation arising from his rape conviction.

    At the time of the assaults, the couple was still married. The lawsuit is seeking both “compensatory and punitive damages” for negligence and assault, as well as for the “intentional and negligent infliction of emotional distress” on the two Richards children.

    Rich People Get Away With Everything

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