Molester Gets 57 Months In Jail

Wed., May 5, 1999

A 37-year-old Worley man will spend nearly five years in prison after his third conviction for sexual abuse.

Richard L. Villegas was sentenced to 57 months in prison, fined $1,000 and ordered to undergo counseling for sexual deviancy, the U.S. attorney’s office said Tuesday.

Villegas had pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court to fondling two girls, ages 6 and 8, while visiting a woman who was baby-sitting the girls at a Plummer home.

Prosecutors said Villegas chased the girls around the yard and cornered them in a bedroom. The older girl got away and told her mother what had happened. Villegas blamed alcohol for lowering his inhibitions, and said the incident arose out of horseplay, prosecutors said.

The case was investigated by the FBI and prosecuted in federal court because it occurred on the Coeur d’Alene Indian Reservation.

Villegas was convicted of similar offenses in Grant County, Wash., in 1984 and 1992.

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Molester Gets 57 Months In Jail

Jesse Tinsley

Jim Meehan

Molly Quinn

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