James Fisher

The News Journal

GEORGETOWN – Lawyers for Robert H. Richards IV, a relative of the du Pont family, and attorneys for his former wife, Tracey Richards, formally reached a settlement Tuesday to end a sex abuse lawsuit she'd filed on their children's behalf.

"The legal system in Delaware has worked. The Richards case is over," Thomas Crumplar, an attorney for Tracey Richards, said outside the Sussex County Courthouse Tuesday. "These children can now heal."

Crumplar, speaking after the settlement was reached Tuesday, praised the 2007 Child Victim's Act, which removed the statute of limitations in Delaware for filing lawsuits alleging child sexual abuse.

"But for that act," Crumplar said, "this case would have gone undetected and these children would have gone unprotected."

Senior reporter Crish Barrish contributed to this story. Contact James Fisher at 983-6772, on Twitter @JamesFisherTNJ or jfisher@delawareonline.com.