genderberg.com - Judge Rejects Plea Deal in Child Sex Case

AP Online
Saturday, October 09, 2004 2:58:00 AM

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By FOSTER KLUG
Associated Press Writer

BALTIMORE (AP) -- A federal judge rejected a plea deal for a
former Baltimore school teacher who admitted traveling to Asia to
have sex with boys.

U.S. District Judge Andre Davis said Richard Schmidt, 61,
deserved a prison sentence longer than 8 to 12 years in prison.

Schmidt, who pleaded guilty in July to two charges connected to
his molestation of a 13-year-old Cambodian boy , would have served
about 10 years if sentenced to the maximum allowed under the
agreement.

"Ten years just doesn't seem to be enough in this case," Davis
said Friday after hearing testimony from a U.S. immigration
official who had interviewed many of the 12 boys Schmidt is accused
of abusing in the Philippines and Cambodia.

Davis said he would be willing to sentence Schmidt to 17 1/2 years
in prison. He postponed sentencing to give attorneys time to come
to a new agreement.

Fred Warren Bennett, Schmidt's attorney, said his client was
"surprised and upset" that the judge rejected a deal he had
tentatively approved earlier.

Prosecutors declined to comment after the hearing.

But Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew Norman said in court that
attorneys from both sides had spent many hours working out the
agreement. Both the defense and the prosecution cited the expense
and difficulty involved in holding a trial, which would require
bringing many of the alleged victims and their families from
Cambodia and the Philippines to Maryland to testify.

Schmidt, who was brought from Cambodia to the United States in
February, was arrested under the federal law known as the Protect
Act, which strengthens officials' ability to investigate and
prosecute Americans who travel abroad to have sex with children.

Prosecutors say Schmidt left Maryland for the Philippines in the
spring of 2002 after Maryland officials issued an arrest warrant
for him, alleging he'd violated his parole on an earlier pedophilia
conviction by associating with a boy. Schmidt had previously served
13 years in prison as a result of child sex offenses in Maryland.

In December, 2003, Schmidt was arrested in Cambodia on suspicion
of sexually molesting boys. The Cambodian charges were dropped so
that Schmidt could be deported to stand trial in the United States.
The two countries have no extradition treaty but often cooperate to
stop sexual abuse of Cambodian children.