Molester, pet abuser jailed

A sex offender who claims to have a split personality is back in the Pend Oreille County Jail less than a month after completing a sentence for slashing and stabbing two pets.

Adam Michael Richardson, 27, is charged with two counts of probation violation and, according to his probation officer, is an arson suspect.

A sheriff’s spokesman declined to confirm or deny that Richardson is being investigated in a number of recent, small fires in Newport.

Court documents filed Wednesday by Richardson’s probation officer, Aaron Cole, say Richardson violated his probation by failing to register as a sex offender after his release from jail last month. Also, Cole alleged, Richardson broke probation by using marijuana and consuming alcohol.

Richardson had been in jail since his arrest in February on two counts of first-degree animal cruelty. He pleaded guilty June 29 to one count of first-degree animal cruelty and one count of willfully injuring a pet.

Superior Court Judge Al Nielson sentenced Richardson to six months on the animal-cruelty charge, with credit for time served, and suspended a one-year jail term on the second count. Richardson now could be ordered to serve the suspended sentence plus a new sentence if convicted of probation violation.

The homeless defendant faces a court hearing Aug. 31, and is being held in lieu of $10,000 bail. Meanwhile, Cole stated that he is working on a plan to transfer Richardson to Snohomish County where Richardson has lived previously and has relatives.

Richardson was convicted of two counts of first-degree child molestation in a 1996 case.

His animal-abuse convictions in June involved the pets of two Newport residents with whom he was angry about being evicted. Richardson had been staying in Kenneth Renner’s apartment in the basement of Stephanie Foust’s home in February when Renner and Foust told him to leave.

Out of Renner’s and Foust’s sight, Richardson stabbed Renner’s Chow-mix dog, Precious, four times and slashed the throat of Foust’s cat, Cee-Cee. Precious survived, but Cee-Cee died in Foust’s arms.

Questioned by a sheriff’s deputy, Richardson said he didn’t remember attacking the animals, but he said his alter ego, “Stacy,” sometimes takes over and does bad things that he doesn’t remember.

Stabbing and slashing the pets sounded like something Stacy would do, and “probably” did do, Richardson told the deputy.