Man Wins Default Judgment Against Russian

A Spokane man won a default judgment in Superior Court against a Russian woman who sued him after their relationship went sour.

The judgment Doug Richardson got against Larissa Sergievou may be of no consequence because she has returned to Moscow.

It does not specify a damage amount.

Earlier, Sergievou was paid $12,000 to settle a portion of her lawsuit, filed against Richardson and his sister. Richardson countersued the woman. A default judgment in that case was entered this week.

Richardson’s attorney, Mary Schultz, said judgment clears her client’s name and shows he was the victim of a scam.

“This clearly was a scam by her from the start,” Schultz said of Sergievou.

The young Russian came to Spokane in the summer of 1993 after a pen-pal relationship developed between her and Richardson.

His sister, Cecilia Rice, of Spokane, helped arrange Sergievou’s visit.

Richardson bought Sergievou an $1,800 airplane ticket and invited her to stay at his apartment.

But after 18 days with him, the 22-year-old Russian woman fled, telling police that she was sexually assaulted and held against her will.

She went to stay with Kathy Reid, a Spokane woman who has befriended other Russians.

Reid, through an attorney, asked Richardson and Rice to pay $600 in living and travel expenses incurred by Sergievou.

After police declined to file criminal charges, Sergievou filed a lawsuit, asking Rice and Richardson to compensate her for expenses associated with her trip to Spokane.

Rice’s insurance company settled with Sergievou for $12,000 late last year. Schultz said that settlement only covered Rice and not Richardson, who wanted to defend himself in court.

He filed a counter suit, alleging he had spent $5,000 on the Russian woman, whom he had hoped to marry. His suit asked her to repay him for clothes and other expenses.

To prepare for the civil trial, Schultz said Richardson voluntarily took a lie detector test she arranged. That test showed he was being truthful when he said he didn’t engage in forcible sex with the Russian woman, Schultz said.

Reid said Friday she doesn’t understand why Richardson went to the expense of getting a default judgment that he can’t collect.

“He pursued this countersuit, knowing full well she’s not in this country,” Reid said. “He’s obsessed with her, and that’s what caused these problems in the first place.”