Black Rapist Freed After Only 1 Year

Daily Mail
January 7, 2014

Defense attorney Walter Madison (right) comforts Ma'Lik Richmond (left) as Richmond reacts to the verdict during his trial at the juvenile court in Steubenville, Ohio on March 17, 2013
Defense attorney Walter Madison comforts Ma’Lik Richmond as he bawls his eyes out at being told he will have to pay for his crime. During a sexual classification hearing back in August of 2013, Judge Thomas Lipps classified Richmond as a tier 2 sex offender. The ruling means Richmond will be required to register every six months for the next 20 years – but he can request to have the classification removed based on his rehabilitation.

One of the Steubenville rapists has been released from a juvenile detention center less than a year after his conviction for raping a 16-year-old girl following an alcohol-fueled party.

Ma’Lik Richmond, a high school football player who was 16 at the time of the sexual assault, was let out of the Cuyahoga Hills Juvenile Detention Center in Ohio some time around January 1.

His attorney, Walter Madison, says in a statement that the youth is a ‘better, stronger person,’ and requests privacy.

Messages left on Monday for Madison seeking further information weren’t immediately returned.

Richmond was sentenced to one year in March 2013. A judge convicted him and fellow Steubenville High School student athlete Trent Mays of raping the West Virginia girl in August 2012.

Mays was convicted of using his phone to take a picture of the girl naked. He was sentenced to two years.

Last August, Judge Thomas Lipps classified Richmond as a tier 2 sex offender which means he will be required to register every six months for the next 20 years.

Unlike adult sex offenders, Richmond’s name won’t be included on publicly accessible websites. And he can request to have the sex offender classification removed later based on his history of rehabilitation.

News 9received a statement from Richmond’s attorney which said: ‘The past sixteen months have been extremely challenging for Ma’lik and his extended family.

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