How Could You? Hall of Shame-Amber Richards case

This will be an archive of heinous actions by those involved in child welfare, foster care and adoption. We forewarn you that these are deeply disturbing stories that may involve sex abuse, murder, kidnapping and other horrendous actions.

From Sevierville, Tennessee, former pastor David Lynn Richards, Jr. and “former staffer at Smoky Mountain Children’s Home” was found “guilty on nine felony counts, including rape, incest and sexual battery by an authority figure” on his adopted daughter, Amber.

“His adopted daughter, Amber Richards, painted him as a vindictive manipulator, who punished her when she spurned his offer to take their relationship “to the next level,” after she had endured nearly two years of sexual abuse in his home.”

“Judge Steve Sword dismissed one count of sexual battery by an authority figure for lack of proof before deliberations began. He also dismissed one count of sexual activity involving a minor for lack of proof after the jury returned the guilty verdicts.

The News Sentinel normally does not identify accusers in sexual abuse cases. Amber Richards, however, chose to speak on-record after Monday’s verdicts were returned.

“I’m just glad I can finally move on with my life,” said Amber Richards, now 21. “This was step one.”

The case, which spanned three days of testimony last week, pitted the victim against her adopted family and her own biological sister amid a host of seemingly suspicious findings but little physical evidence.

David Richards and his then-wife took in Amber Richards and her three biological siblings as foster children in 2008. They joined a household that already included the couple’s daughter and an adopted son.

At the time, David Richards was employed as a case worker with Smoky Mountain Children’s Home in Sevierville. He also served as a minister at My Father’s House Church of God in Lenoir City.

David Richards and his wife soon adopted the girl and her older sister, Megan Richards, through the children’s home. The couple has since separated.

“I didn’t know what I was doing, but I parented them as best I could,” the 41-year-old defendant said, taking the witness stand in his own defense Friday. “My wife left them, with no notice, no explanation and never talked to them again.”

Perhaps the only consistent point among the trial’s conflicting testimonies is that Richards enforced strict rules for his children

When Amber Richards came home past curfew from her part-time job at a local Chick-fil-A, her father threatened to make her quit. When she began hanging out with friends he considered bad influences, he threatened to transfer her to another high school.

Amber Richards, then 16, reported the alleged abuse to her high school guidance counselor Dec. 3. 2013. She claimed she had woken up that morning to find Richards standing next to her bed, pulling her hand inside his pants.

Authorities were notified and the teen sat for a forensic interview at Childhelp Children’s Center of East Tennessee the next day. Amber Richards claimed the abuse had begun with inappropriate touching in 2011, when she was 14, and escalated to raping her several times in their East Knox County home since the summer of 2013 – always while she pretended to be asleep.

“I didn’t want to see him, I didn’t want to open my eyes,” she testified. “I just wanted it to be over.”

The teen told authorities about various places where they might find semen stains in her bedroom – a bed comforter, the bed frame and a purple rug.

She also described a text she had received from him two months earlier, about taking their relationship “to the next level.”

The Knox County Sheriff’s Office executed a search warrant at David Richards’ Millertown Pike home Dec. 5, 2013. Stains believed to be seminal fluid were found on the girl’s bedroom rug, at the foot of her mattress and on a wooden drawer incorporated into the bed frame.

Investigators found a bare mattress on her bed.

“It had been completely stripped,” said KCSO lead investigator Lt. Allen Merritt. “It kind of sent off bells and whistles.”

The girl’s bedding was located in the home’s laundry room dryer, washed and dried. Bedding in the other bedrooms appeared untouched.

Forensic testing later verified the presence of spermatozoa in one of three samples taken from the bed frame drawer. The portion of the sample containing sperm was insufficient for DNA testing, according to the forensic biology report.”

The “non-sperm fraction” of that same seminal fluid sample, however, contained a mixture of at least two DNA profiles, neither of which matched the girl. The “major contributor profile” matched David Richards, the report states.

Investigators also seized David and Amber Richards’ iPhones. David Richards had administrative access to both phones through a shared Apple iCloud account. When KCSO investigators attempted to inspect the phones, they displayed setup screens indicating a factory reset option had been activated for both. It could not be determined who activated the factory resets.

On the witness stand, David Richards had no explanation for why his DNA was found anywhere in his daughter’s bedroom.

He said he is incapable of producing spermatozoa, though; Richards had a vasectomy in 2001, he testified.

Richard’s attorney, Gregg Harrison, introduced a 2018 physician’s report as evidence supporting the claim.

DNA wasn’t the only evidence found in the home.

Merritt testified he spotted two toothbrushes in the father’s bathroom, and women’s makeup in the bedroom. The bedding on David Richards’ bed was pulled back on both sides.

“It would lead me to believe two people had slept in this bed,” Merritt said.

A gift bag containing women’s lingerie and a small, stuffed teddy bear were sitting on the father’s bedroom floor.

David Richards told investigators at the time he wasn’t dating anyone.

Under cross-examination Friday, however, the defendant claimed he had dated three women around that time, including one unidentified woman who had stayed overnight at some point when the children were away with friends.

“To be clear, today’s the first time you’ve mentioned that, right?” Knox County Assistant District Attorney Nathaniel Ogle asked.

When investigators arrived to search the Richards home that night, they found David Richards and two glasses of wine by the sofa. But no girlfriend.

“The only two people in the residence when we got there were David Richards and Megan Richards,” Merritt said.

Megan Richards testified she would have done anything to protect her younger sister had she suspected something was wrong.

“Absolutely – whatever it took to get her out of there,” she said.

Amber and Megan Richards had lived together among 17 foster homes in three states over the span of a decade, and she was “extremely protective” of her siblings, Megan Richards said.

Yet the older sister claimed she never suspected anything inappropriate.

And she directly contradicted Amber Richards’ testimony that she had confided in Megan Richards about the abuse before she reported it to authorities.

“That is not true,” Megan Richards testified.

She echoed David Richards’ characterization of her younger sister as a rebellious girl whose attitude and outbursts created tension for everyone in the home.

“I tried to encourage her, ‘Just do as you’re told,'” Megan Richards said.

Ogle questioned the older sister about the fact that she, then 19, was still living in the home when the alleged abuse first came to light.

Her cross-examination also revealed that Megan Richards, now 24, currently shares a home with David Richards in Lenoir City, and works as an office assistant at his trucking business, Purpose Transport LLC.

“You can infer whatever you want from the facts,” Ogle told jurors during his closing argument. “But it’s not a typical father-daughter relationship. … It’s an awful lot of smoke.”

Sword revoked David Richards’ bond and ordered him jailed pending a sentencing hearing, set for March 28.

Meanwhile, David Richards also is named as a co-defendant, along with Smoky Mountain Children’s Home and three other staffers in a pending $17 million civil lawsuit filed by Amber Richards in Knox County Circuit Court.

Amber Richards said she ultimately hopes to use her experience to counsel other victims of sexual abuse.

“I’m not going to let him ruin my life,” she said. “You can’t keep me down … I will keep fighting.

“He messed with the wrong girl.””

Jury: Former pastor, foster care worker guilty on felony counts, including rape, of adopted daughter

[Knox News 2/12/19 by Hayes Hickman]

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