Columbia director accused of sexual relationship with 16-year-old girl Lancaster New Era
Published: Apr 08, 2008
11:20 EST
By JANET KELLEY, Staff
The band director at Columbia Junior/Senior High School was arrested Monday for allegedly having an ongoing sexual relationship with a 16-year-old female student during the past year.
Robert E. Richards, 33, of 3808 Laurel Drive, Columbia, was charged by police in Columbia and West Hempfield Township with a total of two counts each of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse and corruption of minors, as well as one count each of statutory sexual assault and aggravated indecent assault.
School officials said Richards was placed on paid leave on Monday. He was arraigned before District Judge Robert Herman and committed to jail in lieu of $175,000 cash bail, pending a preliminary hearing.
The alleged relationship between the band director and student included several sexual encounters, according to court documents, once in the high school and several times in Richards' West Hempfield Township home.
Richards is the third Lancaster County band director to be arrested recently on allegations of having sexual encounters with teenage girls, according to newspaper records.
Warwick High School's former band director, Todd Sheerer, was arrested in January, and Michael Wolf of Landisville, who was the band director at Lebanon County's Cedar Crest High School, was convicted of charges in December 2006.
Columbia Borough Police said they first learned of the alleged relationship with the teenage girl two weeks ago, according to the affidavit. Investigators did not say how they learned of the alleged relationship.
Officer Adam Miller interviewed the girl on Sunday, according to the affidavit, and she told the policeman that she had "participated in a sexual relationship," with Richards "on several different occasions."
During one such encounter in April 2007, police said the girl told them, the couple performed a sex act in "the projection room" of Columbia High School.
Columbia police contacted West Hempfield Township Police after the girl told police that she and Richards allegedly had three sexual encounters in the band director's home.
According to the affidavit prepared by West Hempfield Township Police Detective Christopher Kunkle, the girl told police that she and Richards had sexual encounters in the bedroom of his home in April, May and November 2007.
Columbia Borough School District released the following statement this morning:
"Mr. Richards is on paid leave until the school board can take action. Since this is a personnel issue, the district can make no further comment. In Columbia, the students always come first and we will do whatever is necessary so that the students' needs and best interests are met. The faculty and staff will work together to make sure all of the programs at the high school will continue for the 2007-2008 school year."
What that means, Superintendent Barry Clippinger said today, is that counselors and psychologists will be available for students if needed.
Clippinger said Richards was in his third year of teaching at Columbia and directed both the concert band and marching band.
Virginia Babic, principal of the high school at 901 Ironville Pike, Columbia, as well as Tom Strickler, president of the school board, referred all questions to the school superintendent.
Police said today that they were continuing the investigation.
A graduate of James Madison University with a bachelor's degree in music education, Richards previously served as director of bands for three years at Varina High School in Richmond, Va., according to the Columbia school Web site.
He then moved to Lancaster County, working as a project coordinator for a private company for three years. At the same time, he was also writing and arranging marching band shows for schools in Virginia and Pennsylvania, according to the Web site.
Richards, who is married, joined the Columbia school staff full-time in fall 2005, according to the school Web site, as director of bands, which in addition to marching and concert bands, included pep band, jazz band and pit orchestra.
In the spring of 2006, Richards, along with several other teachers and more than 100 students, worked to create an original musical production at the school.
Assistant District Attorney Karen Mansfield will prosecute the Richards case.
The Warwick High School band director, Sheerer, 29, of Lancaster, is awaiting trial on the charges that he had a sexual relationship with a now 17-year-old student, beginning when she was 16. He waived his right to a preliminary hearing and has been terminated from his job.
The girl told police she and Sheerer engaged in intimate sexual contact sometimes as often as five times a week, either in the band room at the high school or in vehicles parked at numerous sites in Warwick, Penn and Manheim townships.
Police arrested him in January after receiving an anonymous tip that the two were in a car parked behind a family restaurant on Oregon Pike.
Wolf, the Landisville man, who was both a music teacher and band director at the Lebanon County school, was convicted in December 2006 of aggravated indecent assault, endangering the welfare of children, indecent assault and corruption of minors.
He was sentenced to 3½ to 15 years in state prison for sexually assaulting two students, ages 16 and 17, while working at the school in 2004, according to newspaper accounts.
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