Cris Barrish

The News Journal

A du Pont family heir who received no prison time after pleading guilty to raping his 3-year-old daughter nearly a decade ago faces a lawsuit from his former wife that accuses him of sexually abusing his toddler son.

Robert H. Richards IV, 47, on probation after pleading guilty in 2008 to fourth-degree rape of his daughter, has never been charged with crimes against his son. The lawsuit filed Tuesday in Superior Court provides in-depth details about a child rape case that did not receive media attention and Delaware authorities never disclosed publicly.

Richards is a scion of two prominent Delaware families – the du Pont family, who built the worldwide chemical empire, and the Richards family, who co-founded the prestigious corporate law firm Richards Layton & Finger. Du Pont family patriarch Irenee du Pont is his great-grandfather. His father, Robert H. Richards III, was a partner in the law firm until his 2008 retirement.

Richards IV is supported by a trust fund and paid $1.8 million for his 5,800-square-foot mansion near Winterthur Museum. He also lists a home in the exclusive North Shores neighborhood near Rehoboth Beach as a residence, according to the state's sex abuse registry.

Abuse of the children occurred at both the Greenville and North Shores homes, the lawsuit claims.

Filed by his former wife on behalf of the children, the lawsuit seeks compensatory and punitive damages for assault, negligence and intentional and negligent infliction of emotional distress on his two children.

Richards' attorney, John C. Balaguer, said he had not seen the lawsuit and had no comment.

The lawsuit argues that statements Richards made while on probation are evidence he admitted in April 2010 to sexually abusing his son. Those assaults began around December 2005, when the boy was 19 months old, and continued for about two years, the lawsuit said.

The revelations came, the lawsuit claims, while Richards was taking a lie detector test, ordered in an attempt to get him to be more forthcoming about his sexual history. Richards told the examiner he "was very concerned that something happened with his son, but that he has repressed the memories.'" He told the examiner he worried that his acts were "similar to what happened with his daughter," the lawsuit said. "But he promised that whatever I did to my son, I will never do it again."

That September, his probation officer informed Superior Court that during the polygraph, "the possibility of sexual contact" with his son "came to light," according to the officer's progress report, filed with the lawsuit.

In a 2012 progress report, another probation officer reminded the court that "there are concerns about Mr. Richards' past offenses concerning his son."

The proven abuse of his daughter and alleged assault of his son has caused his children "long-term injuries," the lawsuit filed Tuesday said, perhaps including depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, sexual dysfunction and shame.

The lawsuit claims Richards raped his daughter, now 11, in 2005 when she was 3. Several times, he entered her bedroom at night while she slept and penetrated her with his fingers while masturbating, said the lawsuit, which includes documents from the criminal case.

Richards told the girl "to keep what he had done to her a secret," but in October 2007, she told her grandmother, Donna Burg, who informed Tracy Richards, the child's mother, the lawsuit said. The girl was taken to her pediatrician, whom she told about the abuse, and New Castle County police arrested Richards that December.

Attorney General Beau Biden's Office obtained a grand jury indictment charging him with two counts of second-degree rape.

Utilizing "his family's wealth and position in the community," Richards IV hired defense attorney Eugene J. Maurer Jr. and denied the charges, the lawsuit said. But after volunteering for and failing a polygraph examination, he admitted abusing his child, "then claimed that he was ill and that he needed medical treatment," the lawsuit said.

In June 2008, he avoided mandatory prison time by pleading guilty to a single count of fourth-degree rape in a deal arranged by Maurer and prosecutor Renee Hrivnak, court records show.

Hrivnak could not be reached to discuss the plea deal, but Joseph Rogalsky, spokesman for Biden's office, said, "We cannot comment on that."

Superior Court Judge Jan Jurden sentenced Richards to eight years in prison but suspended that for Level II probation, which requires monthly visits with a case officer. Jurden also ordered him to pay $4,395 to the Delaware Violent Crimes Compensation Board, records filed with the lawsuit show.

"This self-confessed, admitted rapist and child abuser didn't go to jail, and, in fact, he stays in luxury where he has always been," attorney Thomas C. Crumplar, who represents the children and Richards' ex-wife Tracy, said during a news conference Tuesday.

He said Tracy Richards asked anyone with knowledge of other possible abuse by Richards to contact authorities, saying Richards had once been a counselor at a children's camp.

Contact senior reporter Cris Barrish at (302) 324-2785, cbarrish@delawareonline.com or on Facebook.