David Lynn Richards was the pastor of My Father’s House in Lenoir City, Tennessee. When his adopted daughter was sixteen years old, she told her guidance counselor that her father put her hand down his pants. The next day she had a forensic interview and revealed he had been raping her for two years. While he denied it and said it was motivated by defiance. However, police found his seminal fluid that matched his DNA on her bed frame.
He testified in his defense, but the jury didn’t believe him and he was convicted. He was convicted of 9 felony counts, rape, incest, and sexual battery by an authority figure. The prosecutors asked for 72 years. The current pastor of the church and several church members came to testify to his good character and it seemed to have swayed the judge who said he was a good, Christian man. So the judge sentenced him to 12 years, available for parole in just 9 years. There was backlash for the judge, not just for the light sentence but also for calling a convicted rapist of his child a good, Christian man.
Richards appealed, claiming incompetent counsel, but his appeal for a new trial was denied.
- MEAWW: Former Tennessee pastor who repeatedly raped adopted daughter sentenced to 12 years in prison
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Knoxville, Tennessee · Tuesday, February 12, 2019
