Teen jailed for sex offense involving woman with autism

Plea resolves rape charge in case

Wednesday, Nov. 12, 2008

Steven Wayne Goldsmith, now 19, was indicted on charges of second-degree rape and a third-degree sexual offense from the March 24 incident at the home of the 18-year-old Charlotte Hall resident.

"She functions at a 12-year-old level," St. Mary's Assistant State's Attorney Joseph Stanalonis said at last week's plea hearing. "She meets the criteria for being mentally incapacitated."

The woman told investigators that Goldsmith forced her to have intercourse by holding her down, the prosecutor said.

The woman's family consented to the plea agreement reached in the case, the prosecutor said, which called for Goldsmith to plead guilty to the charges amended to second-degree assault and a fourth-degree sexual offense. "I would like to apologize to the victim," Goldsmith said in court, "for anything that ever happened between us."

St. Mary's Circuit Judge Michael J. Stamm carried out the plea agreement and sentenced Goldsmith to seven years in prison for the assault offense, suspended to the 18-month jail term with work-release privileges. A concurrent one-year sentence was imposed for the fourth-degree sexual offense, to be followed by five years of supervised probation. Stamm ordered that Goldsmith register as a sexual offender, and told him that the case warranted sending him to state prison. "The victim seems to have forgiveness in her soul," the judge said. "You also have given the victim nightmares that will continue forever."

Jurors convict Great Mills man of sex offense

In a separate matter, St. Mary's jurors convicted Richard Allen Richardson, 23, formerly of Great Mills, on Friday on charges of a third-degree sexual offense and an attempted second-degree sexual offense.

Richardson was indicted last spring on the felony charges from the September 2006 incident, after St. Mary's detectives filed original district court charging papers in the case alleging that he had unlawfully fondled a 7-year-old boy.

Richardson's lawyer sought a delay of the trial on grounds that money to pay for the defendant's travels from his current home in West Virginia to St. Mary's for his trial recently had been stolen.

A prosecutor successfully opposed that request, arguing that the "complex case" involved a mentally handicapped victim and DNA evidence taken from garments of the defendant and the child.

Richardson's sentencing was delayed after Friday's verdict to await an investigation by the state's division of parole and probation.

jwharton@somdnews.com