Attorney Asks Jury to Spare Ex-Officer the Death Penalty

A former Los Angeles police officer convicted of murder deserves leniency because he “never got over” a tough childhood, suffered from delayed-stress syndrome and struggled emotionally after his wife was raped, his attorney told jurors Thursday.

Attorney Rickard Santwier asked a Van Nuys Superior Court jury to spare Richard Herman Ford, a former detective, the death penalty and sentence him instead to life in prison without possibility of parole.

Ford, 48, of Northridge and fellow police officer, Robert Von Villas, 44, of Simi Valley have been convicted by separate juries of murder and conspiracy to commit murder in the 1983 killing of Northridge businessman Thomas Weed.

Santwier said Ford “had a tough childhood” in which his parents divorced and his mother took his older sister to raise, leaving him with his father.

“He could not understand why his mother rejected him--took his older sister, but not him. It was something he never got over,” Santwier said.

2 Tours of Duty in Vietnam

Despite his rough early years and the fact that he dropped out of high school, Ford was in public service for 25 years, Santwier said. He served 12 years in the Army--including two tours of duty in Vietnam, where he was wounded--and stints in the prestigious presidential honor guard and the paratroopers, Santwier said.

He then served 13 years with the Police Department, Santwier said, as a “good and decent cop” who once was shot in the line of duty.

Suffering from delayed-stress syndrome as a result of the war and later from emotional problems after his wife, Lillian, an RTD bus driver, was raped in 1980, Ford sought help from a police psychologist eight times between November, 1978, and June, 1981, Santwier said.

Santwier said Ford should not be “judged by a higher or lower standard because he was a cop.”