Former Oregon Prosecutor Gets 2 Years in Prison

original story posted July 29, 2009

Randy Ray Richardson was sentenced on Monday to serve two years in prison with the charges being stealing the house of a dying woman. Richardson is a former Multnomah County, Oregon prosecutor.

The background spans all the way back to August 2006 when Richardson along with Eric Joe Penn persuaded a woman to sign over her North Portland house over to Penn weeks before she died. The woman, Margaret Patton, 73, was on medication and was also dealing with brain cancer when they had her sign over her $224,500 home.

Patton's home would be recovered by family, but her granddaughter reported that many special items

with sentimental value that were inside were lost.

Although tearful and apologetic during the trial, his lack of remorse during the actual event lead to this. Along with that, Multnomah County Circuit Judge Michael McShane stated that a particular amount of trust was given by Patton and he chose to abuse her trust.

Highly respected by the Black community as well as his colleagues, many tried to issue letters urging the judge to reconsider the sentence given to Richardson. Names that rallied for the man included State Senator Margaret Carter, D-Portland and former state Sen. Avel Gordly.

In Carter's letter specifically, she pointed out the damage of an absent father and how it can affect the African American youth, referring to Richardson's 11-year old. She also made reference to a study that was conducted where results indicated that 25% of Black children have had their father placed behind bars before they reach the age of 14.

Race was used as a positive as his attorney, Larry Matasar, pointed out that his client has achieved many accolades as he is one of limited African American attorneys located in the Portland area.

Clearly all of the pleas fell on deaf ear as the judge still continued with the sentence. He stated that jurors were offended when Richardson tried to state that he needed to raise his son and should be allowed to avoid prison.

Richardson's run with suspicious activity runs deep as he resigned in 2000 from the Multnomah County district attorney's office as speculation began to emerge that he was part of a pyramid scheme.

Other bad behavior included allegations of domestic abuse and even bribing a witness when he was defending a man for attempted murder.

Although Richardson may have had promise and potential, people are not judged by that they can be, they are judged by the actual actions they choose to commit in life.