Ex-police chief faces more sex-crime charges

MONTESANO, Grays Harbor County - Prosecutors have filed an additional two dozen sex-crime charges against a former Cosmopolis police chief, bringing the total to 26.

Aaron T. Richards is scheduled for trial in three weeks.

"This all should have been done two months ago," defense lawyer Bill Morgan said at a hearing this week. He accused Deputy Prosecutor Paul Conroy of overwhelming him with last-minute charges.

Grays Harbor County Superior Court Judge Mark McCauley appointed attorney John Farra to assist Morgan.

Richards did not speak at Monday's hearing. He remained in the Grays Harbor County Jail with bail set at $250,000.

Richards originally was charged last month with first-degree child rape and possession of child pornography.

A bus driver for the Cosmopolis School District in 1974 and 1975, Richards was hired to serve as the city's acting police chief in 1975. He left town later that year. Cosmopolis is about five miles east of Aberdeen.

Aberdeen authorities began their investigation after a teenager accused Richards of molesting her.

He was arrested Sept. 8 when Aberdeen police served a search warrant at his home and found four videotapes that showed Richards having sex with a girl on numerous occasions, according to court records.

The tapes also showed a friend of Richards, Dale Atwood, 58, of Aberdeen, having sex with the girl twice, prosecutors allege.

Police wanted to avoid further traumatizing the girl by having her view the tapes, so a detective made still photographs of each incident depicted, Conroy said. The girl then told police where each incident occurred and how old she was at the time.

In a dozen instances, the girl told police she was younger than 12, the threshold for a first-degree statutory sex crime. In two cases she was older than 12 but younger than 14, according to Conroy.

The deputy prosecutor charged Richards with a total of nine counts of first-degree child rape, three counts of first-degree child molestation, two counts of second-degree child rape, 11 counts of sexual exploitation of a minor and one count of possession of depictions of a minor engaged in sexually explicit conduct.

Atwood was released after pleading not guilty to charges of first- and second-degree child rape and exploitation of a child.