Richard Lloyd Dilley

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1. Scout Leader Gets 8 Years For Raping, Molesting Boys -- 'Abuse Of Trust' Pushes Sentence Past Guidelines
   view source details | 15 Dec 1990 | Seattle Times

Case information source details

• Scout Leader Gets 8 Years For Raping, Molesting Boys -- 'Abuse Of Trust' Pushes Sentence Past Guidelines
  Publisher: Seattle Times
  Date: 15 Dec 1990
  Archive.org
  Source type: News article

  Burien Boy Scout leader Richard L. Dilley, 31, was sentenced to eight years in prison yesterday for rape and molestation of two boys he met in a church-sponsored Scouting program.

  The sentence, by King County Superior Court Judge Patricia Aitken, went 12 months farther than an 84-month exceptional sentence sought by prosecutors. Standard sentencing guidelines called for concurrent sentences totaling less than five years.

  The extraordinary sentence was warranted by Dilley's abuse of the trust placed in him by parents of young boys, and by his history of sexual deviancy, Aitken said. Dilley was dishonorably discharged from the Navy in 1983 after admitting to abusing boys in a Scouting program in Greece.

  Aitken rejected Dilley's tearful request to be placed under long-term supervision so he could receive treatment in the community. Dilley said he finally had come to grips with his problem and vowed, ``It's not going to happen again in my lifetime.''

  ``The only way to essentially protect the community is for Mr. Dilley to go to prison,'' Aitken responded.

  Prosecutors produced a letter indicating Dilley had made a similar vow to seek treatment in 1983 as a means to avoid a Navy court-martial proceeding.

  ``This is not a sentence that precludes treatment,'' Aitken said, adding that she would recommend Dilley enter a sex-offender treatment program at Twin Rivers Correctional Institute.

  Dilley pleaded guilty Oct. 17 to a single count of raping a child and five counts of child molestation. The charges stemmed from sexual contact with two boys, aged 14 and 15, on Scouting trips and during overnight stays at Dilley's apartment during the past two years.

  Dilley, a secretary at the University of Washington, had been a scoutmaster and coach at a Burien Mormon church between 1986 and 1989, before switching to teaching church doctrine to the elderly last year.

  He was visibly shaken yesterday as both his victims and their parents stood before Aitken and requested an exceptional sentence.

  ``The people that he hurt will have to deal with it for the rest of their lives,'' one victim said, adding that ``I don't think even seven years (in jail) would be enough.''

  ``These boys thought they were supposed to trust him,'' said one victim's father. ``My son's got a lot to go through.''

  Publicity about the case intensified the boys' trauma, one parent said. ``There wasn't anyone in Burien who didn't know,'' she said.

  Dilley thanked the boys for having the courage to turn him in.

  ``What I did was terribly wrong,'' he said. ``I've caused so much anger, controversy and hatred in the community. I am the only offender here.''