1983 Citizen of Year Tells Sons of Sorrow : Ex-Trustee Sentenced for Molesting Boy

A former Huntington Beach City School District trustee was sentenced Monday to one year in the Orange County Jail for child molestation in a case that police say involved a seven-year pattern with a boy who was 13 when it began.

Richard M. Boucher, 61, resigned from the school board in March, after charges were filed against him. Monday he faced the spectators at his sentencing hearing and, in comments intended for his six sons, three of whom were present in court with their mother, said: “You don’t know how bad your dad feels.”

Boucher was elected to the school board in 1985. He was named Citizen of the Year by the Huntington Beach Chamber of Commerce in 1983 for his 45 years of involvement in Scouting. He recently retired as an employee of the City of Huntington Beach, where he had worked primarily in the engineering office.

Boucher pleaded guilty to a felony charge of child molestation involving a neighborhood youth and no contest to a misdemeanor charge involving a second neighborhood boy, who was 15 at the time.

Superior Court Judge Luis A. Cardenas sentenced Boucher to five years of formal probation, one year of which is to be spent in County Jail.

Five close friends of Boucher testified as character witnesses. They all urged that Boucher be given probation without any jail time. But several of them struggled to answer when Deputy Dist. Atty. Michael A. Koski asked how they would feel if the victim had been their son.

John F. Miller, a Huntington Beach city employee who has known Boucher for 15 years, answered: “That’s a question I’ve thought about. I don’t think I could give you a truthful answer. I wouldn’t want to have to be in the position to judge.”

Cardenas said the crime was far too serious for him to consider probation without any jail time. The only real question, Cardenas said, was whether to send Boucher to state prison.

Civic Work Cited

Cardenas said he decided on the jail sentence because of Boucher’s exemplary record of work with the Scouts and United Way.

“I feel sorry for you, Mr. Boucher, but I feel more sorry for the victims and their families,” Cardenas said.

The judge added that he sympathized with the feelings of Boucher’s character witnesses. But the “personal shame and embarrassment” Boucher has suffered is not sufficient punishment, Cardenas said.

According to police evidence, Boucher began having sex with a neighborhood boy nearly eight years ago, when the victim was 13. Boucher was arrested in February after the young man, almost 21, was admitted to a drug and alcohol rehabilitation center and told counselors about his sexual relationship with Boucher.

The felony count filed by prosecutors involved sexual conduct between Boucher and the young man from March to June, 1984.

2nd Neighborhood Boy

The misdemeanor incident with the second neighborhood boy, which occurred in November, 1986, was unrelated to the first victim, police said.

The parents of the victims were in court but chose not to speak. They had submitted written statements to Cardenas instead.

The father of the boy involved in the felony count said his son is in therapy and is making progress.

“What the judge did today was as good as we could expect,” he said. “I’m pleased.”

Koski had asked for a two-year prison sentence but said later that he thought Cardenas’ sentence was “very fair.”