Tri-Cities man molested boys decades ago. Now he’s guilty of making child pornography

A Richland man has pleaded guilty to directing pornographic videos of boys as young as 8 from poor families overseas, according to federal court documents.

Richard Allen Smith, 65, already was a registered sex offender while making child pornography that could be shared electronically. He was convicted in Benton County Superior Court in 1996 of molesting two boys ages 10 and 11.

He served no prison time and instead the case “was resolved with treatment and a promise not to harm another child,” federal prosecutors said in court document. They said that sentence was wholly insufficient to deter him from victimizing numerous other young boys.

More recently he was charged with guiding the production of videos remotely from the Tri-Cities.

In one videos police found, Smith can be heard calling the Philippines, telling the person shooting it what he wanted to see and what they should tell the young boys to do.

He talked to some of the boys through an interpreter.

In another instance, Smith communicated through Facebook with a child in Guatemala, according to court documents.

The boy repeatedly said he needed money, but Smith told the boy he was not going to send money unless the child sent the images.

The child eventually agreed and Smith sent money, which was collected by the boy’s mother.

After police seized the video, the boy was found and removed from his home.

At one point Smith tried to travel to the Philippines, where the majority of his victims live, but could not because of his status as a sex offender.

He also encouraged the boy from Guatemala to come to Washington state.

“Defendant was reaching out to increasingly more children and was distributing the images he encouraged them — sometimes encouraged by payment — to make,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Alison Gregoire wrote in a court document.

“Defendant’s abuse of children was not a discrete act or a momentary lapse in judgment,” she said. “This had gone on for years.”

He stopped only when police investigated Facebook posts uploaded in 2019 and 2020.

One of the children said he now is afraid to go outside and has trouble sleeping, according to investigators.

Another said Smith’s crimes harmed his relationship with his family and friends. He said his wish is that Smith never be in the position to commit a crime against another child.

Smith’s former attorney, Alex Hernandez III of Yakima, said Smith had been sexually abused by a neighbor when he was a child in Walla Walla and spent time in foster homes before leaving home at 16.

He obtained a master’s degree after studying human resource management and worked for Washington state, Idaho and Amazon.

Federal prosecutors and his former defense attorney agreed to recommend the judge sentence Smith to 25 years in prison for one count of production of child pornography.

His sentencing has been delayed, at his request, until Jan. 5 because a new defense attorney was appointed in August and needs time to review the case.

Smith remains at the SeaTac Detention Center, a federal prison near the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.

This story was originally published September 28, 2022 at 5:00 AM.