‘You took advantage of her’: Man gets rider after pleading guilty to sexually assaulting Pocatello teen
Published at | Updated at
POCATELLO — A local man who kidnapped a 15-year-old girl and forced her to perform sexual acts was sentenced to a rider.
Richard Walt Harkness was originally charged in March 2024 with felony first-degree kidnapping for the purpose of ransom or rape and felony child sexual battery through solicitation.
RELATED | Hearing for man accused of lewd conduct with a minor postponed as witness unavailable
In September, in exchange for a guilty plea, Harkness accepted a plea agreement that the state would dismiss the kidnapping charge and recommend a retained jurisdiction. The state would recommend an underlying sentence of two years fixed and three years indeterminate for a total sentence of five years. The agreement was binding on the court.
Harkness was sentenced on Feb. 2 by District Judge Rick Carnaroli, after the man’s defense attorney released the court from the binding agreement.
Carnaroli sentenced Harkness to eight years fixed and four years indeterminate, but retained jurisdiction.
Retained jurisdiction, often referred to as a rider, is a type of sentence in which a person is given a six-month to one-year prison term and placed in an intensive counseling and educational program. Once the person completes the rider, the court determines whether to place them on probation or sentence them to prison to fulfill their original sentence.
RELATED | What is a ‘rider’ in the felony context?
What happened
According to court documents, the Pocatello Police Department had received a phone call on March 25 from a friend of the victim reporting a sexual assault.
The victim told police she was walking on East Center Street near a restaurant and the Center Street underpass when a man, later identified as Harkness, pulled up next to her in a vehicle and offered her a ride.
She had accepted it and stated that Harkness had told her to perform a sexual favor in exchange for a ride. The assault occurred near a railroad track, and Harkness gave the victim $40.
Officers obtained traffic camera footage showing a maroon Ford Escape traveling in the area described by the victim. One of the cameras captured the victim in the passenger seat.
When Harkness was interviewed by police, he told them that he had offered a young girl a ride in the area where the victim had reported and took her home. Later, Harkness was asked whether his DNA would be found on the girl. Harkness said he wanted a lawyer, and the interview ended.
Guilt and trauma
The victim in this case was given a chance to have her impact statement read by a victim-witness coordinator.
The victim stated that she believed it was her own fault that the incident occurred because of how she was dressed.
She described what she wore: a long-sleeve button-up shirt and brown shorts.
“I told myself that the reason I got sexually assaulted was because I was dressed up like a hooker,” the victim stated.
While she was walking down East Center Street, she noticed Harkness pull up next to her and ask if she needed a ride.
While inside the vehicle, she stated that Harkness had given her a fake name and made inappropriate comments that disturbed her.
Since the assault, the victim described how the incident has traumatized her, and at times, she blames herself for what occurred.
“I do know that the two years he was said to be sentenced for feel like nothing. To be blunt, Your Honor. I believe he is severely messed up in the head, and that two years is not enough to help fix that,” the victim stated.
Retained Jurisdiction
Harkness’s attorney, Curtis Smith, spoke to the court about concerns there were in regards to the binding plea agreement.
He understood that the court was not comfortable with the five-year underlying sentence and agreed to release the court from the binding portion of the agreement.
Speaking about the case itself, Smith said that Harkness, since his arrest, has been focusing on being proactive while on his pretrial release. This is through seeking counseling, completing his psychosexual evaluations, taking polygraphs and talking with a counselor for sex offender treatment.
“He’s somebody who has no prior history. I’ve had so many people reach out to me that know him… they indicate that he’s just somebody who, to them, has lived a really good life,” Smith said.
Talking with his client, Smith said Harkness understands that what he did was wrong and sought to keep the case open when issues arose about the victim not showing up in court.
“The case could have been dismissed at that stage, but we didn’t want that. The state didn’t want that. We worked through that,” Smith said. “That tells you where his mindset was. It was always about accepting responsibility for this. He never put it off on anybody else.”
Bannock County Prosecutor JaNice Price told the court that the state is still considering retained jurisdiction as its recommendation.
However, she did discuss Harkness’s history of concerns about past conduct that has never been charged, but that a rider could address.
‘You took advantage of her’
Prior to sentencing, Harkness was given the opportunity to present a statement to the court.
“I’d just like to apologize to everybody that this has affected most of all, my family, the victim,” Harkness said. “Obviously, it’s not in my character at all to do something like this, nor will I ever do it again. It’s been the hardest two years of my life, and I’m just real sorry for it.”
Judge Carnaroli told Harkness that what brings individuals like him to court is often impulses that are hard to control, and, looking at his psychosexual evaluation, addiction is one of them.
He said that Harkness has a pornography addiction and a paraphilic disorder, where he has a strong sexual interest in young girls.
“When I take a look at sentencing you today, you were out cruising around looking for sex, and you found a very vulnerable, troubled child,” Carnaroli said.
Talking about the victim, who was living in a group home, Carnaroli said that often, many of those children have problems at home and are lost.
“Those are kids that are temporarily lost, and you found one of those, and you took advantage of her,” Carnaroli said.
Giving his reasons for the issues he had with the recommendations in the plea agreement, he said that in cases like these, he sees a need for deterrence.
Carnaroli said many of his past sentences have been scrutinized by the Idaho Supreme Court, and he agrees he is more heavy-handed in sentencing.
Before Harkness’s charges were amended, he said the man was looking at life in prison, and now a possible 20-year sentence.
“What we don’t want is the community exacting its own measure of justice because the judges are unwilling or unable to hand out a pretty stiff sentence,” Carnaroli said.
Looking at Harkness’s background, no prior criminal history, a low risk of reoffending, and his efforts to seek treatment, he agrees with the retained jurisdiction.
Carnaroli also gave an underlying sentence of four years fixed and four years indeterminate.
“They don’t give you any sex offender treatment while you’re on the rider,” Carnaroli said. “The hard work comes when you get back.”
Harkness was also fined $545 in court costs, $500 in fines, $500 for supervision costs, and $325 in restitution to the victim.
He is also ordered to comply with sex offender registration.