Richard Heeringa Convicted Of Child Sex Assaults Fails To Appear For Verdict

[Whisper]

Warrant issued for Richard Heeringa's Arrest
CASTLE ROCK, Colo. -- A man convicted of child sex assault is a fugitive after he failed to show up for the verdict in Douglas County.
Authorities are looking for 48-year-old Richard Heeringa after a warrant was issued for his arrest following Thursday's verdict. His trial lasted two weeks.
Heeringa was convicted of 17 counts of sexual assault on a child by a person in a position of trust, pattern of abuse and one count of sexual assault, overcome victim's will.
According to court testimony, Heeringa moved to Colorado in 2005, moved in with a woman and began molesting her daughter. Heeringa regularly abused the victim until September 2007, when he left the home, testimony revealed..
The victim came forward several months later and that's when the investigation began.
Victims from previous sex assault cases involving Heeringa also testified and described similar behavior and patterns of abuse administered by the defendant.
"The one thing the defendant failed to take into account when selecting his victim was courage,” said prosecutor Brian Sugioka during closing arguments. “The victim's courage to come forward and confront the defendant in a recorded phone call."

Sugioka cited “her courage to eventually tell her mother, her courage to come into court and tell you what happened. If not for the victim's courage, he would have gotten away with it."
The Fugitive Location and Apprehension Group is actively searching for Heeringa.

Due to the nature of his offenses and being a habitual offender, Heeringa faces a mandatory indeterminate sentence.
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[CasperGirl]

Ok, now why was this guy out on bail in the first place?

[Dakota Valkyrie]

U.S. Marshals announced Tuesday the arrest of Richard Carl Heeringa, a convicted child molester who has been on the run from Douglas County since April 2010.

He has been on the U.S. Marshals 15 Most Wanted list.

A jury convicted Heeringa guilty of 17 counts of sexual assault on a child by a person in a position of trust and failure to register as a sex offender. He faces more than 500 years in prison.

Heeringa, 55, was arrested in Detroit Saturday, October 29.
[...]

Heeringa has two other sex assault cases pending in Colorado and he has served 12 years in prison for a sex assault conviction in Michigan.
[...]

"Richard Heeringa is a predator, who has a track record of preying on young girls," said U.S. Marshals spokesman Geoff Shank when Heeringa was added to the 15 Most Wanted list.
http://www.kdvr.com/news/kdvr-most-wanted-child-molester-from-colorado-arrested-20111101,0,2981169.story

[Dakota Valkyrie]

A serial child-sex offender laughed at a Douglas County judge, who then sentenced him to 576 years to life in prison on Thursday.

"If you’re laughing now, stay tuned," Judge Paul King told Richard Heeringa, 57. "You deserve every century that I’m going to give you."

Heeringa declined to speak at his sentencing.

The judge rebuked Heeringa for fleeing Colorado in 2010 on the night before a jury found him guilty on 17 counts of sexual assault on a child by a person in a position of trust and failure to register as a sex offender.

On the run for 18 months, Heeringa made the U.S. Marshals Service's 15 Most Wanted fugitive list. In October 2011, deputy marshals captured him in a Detroit basement apartment, where he was living under an assumed name. A resident recognized him from a picture on "America's Most Wanted."

"Heeringa is a predator who has a track record of preying on young girls," Geoff Shank, acting assistant director of the U.S. Marshals Service Investigative Operations Division, said at the time of the arrest.

Authorities said Heeringa would befriend divorced women in order to get to their daughters.

He spent 12 years in a Michigan prison for sexual assault.

Upon being released in 2004, Heeringa move to Colorado to resume a relationship with an ex-wife, and soon began molesting her daughter, said Douglas County district attorney spokeswoman Casimir Spencer.

Heeringa continued sexually assaulting the girl until September 2007, when he left the home, Spencer said.

The girl came forward to police several months later.

New coverage of Heeringa’s arrest drew the attention of other girls who'd been sexually assaulted by the man, Spencer said. They, too, came forward and testified about similar attacks by Heeringa.
[...]

Veteran prosecutors said Herringa is one of the most coldly calculating predators they've ever faced.

“What sticks out most in my mind about this case is the degree of planning Heeringa used to plan, accomplish and try to get away with his crimes," Senior Deputy District Attorney Brian Sugioka said at the sentencing. "It’s more premeditation and forethought than I've ever seen in a murder case or any other type of case, all for the express purpose of molesting a child."

Deputy District Attorney Christopher Gallo agreed.

"I have sat in the same courtroom with assassins and murderers, but it is this man that has haunted my thoughts," Gallo said. "He has the insufferable gall to say that it is this court’s fault and the legislators' fault for railroading him as he thumbs his nose at the court and asks for leniency."

"There is no upper limit that the court can impose. Asking for the minimum would be farcical in comparison to what the defendant did. If this defendant is given the possibility to breathe free air, then I believe we have failed," the prosecutor concluded.
http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/30884326/detail.html