David Richards is trying to throw out his 2019
convictions.
KNOXVILLE,
Tenn. —WBIR.com- An East Tennessee man convicted of sexually
abusing an underage girl has lost his bid for a new trial,
unable to convince a judge that his original lawyer made
multiple mistakes and that new evidence raised doubts about
his guilt.
David Richards, 45, a
former Lenoir City pastor and foster dad, is serving a
12-year sentence in the Tennessee prison system for sexual
battery, rape and statutory rape by an authority figure.
A Knox County
Criminal Court jury convicted him in 2019. Judge Steve
Sword imposed sentence.
Richards was
represented at trial by veteran attorney Gregg Harrison,
a former Knox County prosecutor now in private practice.
Richards hired
veteran defense attorney Stephen Ross Johnson, whose
work in the field has included founding a local chapter
of a group that seeks to overturn wrongful convictions
through strategies such as genetic evidence.
Richards, through
Johnson, wanted to throw out his convictions and get a
new trial.
This year Johnson
presented what he argued was evidence of multiple
failures by Harrison to challenge state evidence or
investigate his client's case adequately.
Richards also
argued new information had been discovered recently
about the victim's cellphone, semen -- human or canine
-- found in the victim's room and the background of a
Tennessee Bureau of Investigation forensic analyst,
Amory Cannon, who reviewed genetic evidence in the case
and testified against Richards at trial.
The judge heard
the evidence this summer in multiple hearings. He issued
his ruling Monday.
Sword said he was
unconvinced Harrison had let Richards down while
representing him.
For example, while
the TBI employee's background and reason for abrupt
departure from the agency in 2016 could have been
probed, Harrison used her testimony to cast doubts on
the victim's allegations. It was a strategic decision,
Sword wrote.
Richards and
Johnson "failed to establish deficiency on this matter
by clear and convincing evidence, although it is in fact
a close issue."
No proof was
offered that Cannon was "dishonest in her work in this
case or any other case," Sword wrote.
Johnson also
sought to raise questions about whether the victim
could have reset her iPhone in 2013 as authorities
began investigating allegations against Richards.
Knox County
authorities seized Richards' iPhone early Dec. 5,
2013. Later that day they seized the victim's iPhone.
The victim had
testified Richards sent her incriminating messages
by phone and that he had an app that could track her
phone.
The state was
able to suggest at trial that Richards might have
been the one who reset the phone, but Johnson argued
new evidence suggested it might have been the victim
herself who altered the technology.
Sword was
unconvinced.
"As stated
above, the records concerning the victim,
information regarding the resetting of the iPhones
and information about Agent Cannon's investigation
were not constitutionally material in this case. The
defendant has not shown that the result of the trial
would likely change with the information discovered
between the verdict and the motion for new trial
hearings," Sword wrote.
The judge also
said that while the prosecution didn't completely
tear apart Richards' claims while testifying, the
victim came across well on the stand.
Her testimony
was, the judge wrote, "extremely compelling."