FARMINGTON – A 60-year-old man was sentenced Tuesday to spend two years behind bars for having unlawful sexual contact with an 11-year-old boy last summer in his Wilton home.
In early April, James Richman was found guilty by a jury on one count of felony unlawful sexual contact, but was acquitted on five other identical charges.
Richman has been held at the Franklin County Detention Center for the past two months awaiting his sentencing, which was held off pending a forensic and physiological exam.
In Superior Court Tuesday, Assistant District Attorney Andrew Robinson asked Justice Joseph Jabar to consider the aggravated nature of the case, highlighting that the victim was only 11 years old.
Although Robinson admitted that Richman had no prior record and had been honorably discharged from the military, he stressed that the sentence should be strong because the victim had indicated in interviews that the incident had “changed his life” and made it so he “no longer trusts people.”
Norma Meyer, Franklin County’s child protective supervisor for the Department of Human Services, also pointed out the negative impact the contact had on the boy.
“It’s a tragedy what happened to this little boy,” she said, adding that the child is legally blind and was “the most vulnerable” of the five children in the family who spent time with Richman as he showered them with gifts and food.
Robinson also expressed severe concern that Richman had shown “absolutely no remorse. It’s clear to the state that the defendant is a textbook predator.”
Meanwhile, defense attorney Andrew Campbell painted a different picture of who the victim was, arguing that it was Richman, and that a scarlet letter was being placed on Richman’s forehead.
“No one can deny it’s a tragedy when a child suffers,” he said. Campbell then said the court an d DHS had “demonized” his client. “He doesn’t express remorse,” Campbell said, “because he didn’t do it. The fact he was acquitted on five counts says something.”
Two witnesses, a mother and her 13-year-old son, were then asked to speak on behalf of the defendant, but their contributions about the upstanding character of Richman were soon shot down when Robinson mentioned to the judge that the mother was actually the sister-in-law of Richman’s attorney, Campbell.
Clinical counselor Eric Rutberg, who counseled Richman at his private practice in Wilton, was called to testify on behalf of the defense. He claimed that Richman’s actions may have been a result of a “cognitive disorder” or “brain injury” he had sustained in a previous accident. Those neurological problems, the counselor said, “could have affected his judgment.”
Finally, it was time for Richman to speak for himself. Although he admitted he needed treatment for his “naivety,” he said he couldn’t claim wrongdoing. “I won’t say I did what I didn’t do, sir. I am no threat to anyone.”
In the end, Jabar ruled that Richman “demonized himself by his conduct,” citing a long list of aggravated factors that included Richman “grooming the victim,” showing no remorse for his actions, and targeting someone who was young, of the same sex and vulnerable.
The ruling was important, he said, to send a message not only to Richman but to the community and other sex offenders that unlawful sexual contact will not be tolerated.
He sentenced him to four years, with all but two suspended, and tacked on a hefty six-year probation, which includes clauses of no contact with anyone under the age of 16, counseling and that Richman must register as a sex offender within 10 days of his release from the Maine State Prison.
sdepoy@sunjournal.com
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