Montana teacher gets 10 years prison in sex coercion case

BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — A Montana teacher was sentenced to 10 years in prison for trying to coerce a minor into sex at an academy for youths with behavioral and emotional issues.

District Judge Ashley Harada sentenced Rodney Lawrence Richard, 58, to 20 years in Montana State Prison with 10 years suspended. Richard pleaded guilty to showing a teenager a sexually explicit video and then trying to destroy any evidence that he had done so.

Richard received 10 years in prison to be served concurrently for tampering with evidence and tampering with a witness. Harada dismissed one count of tampering with or fabricating physical evidence at Richard’s Monday sentencing hearing, The Billings Gazette reported.

Richard’s attorney had asked the court for a suspended sentence, arguing he had not been previously convicted of any felonies.

Charges were filed against Richard in June 2021. Prosecutors alleged that the previous August Richard tried to convince a 15-year-old to have sex by showing the youth a sexually-explicit video of himself.

Richard was a teacher at the Yellowstone Academy at Yellowstone Boys and Girls Ranch at the time. He previously worked as a teacher at a school in Pryor, court documents said, and left after being caught watching pornography on a school computer.