Alleged Victim Tells of Sex Acts at 3rd Trial of Ex-Youth Pastor

Former youth pastor David Rickard returned to court this week and, for the third time, faced his accuser--a young man, now 20, who described sexual acts he claims occurred five years ago in Sierra Madre.

“I don’t care if he goes to prison or anything,” the youth told jurors. “I just want to see him admit that this happened, instead of just lying about it and going on with his life.”

Rickard, 39, is being retried in Pasadena Superior Court on criminal charges of oral copulation with a minor under 16 years of age. The proceedings are the third trial for Rickard on charges stemming from a 2 1/2-year homosexual relationship that prosecutors say Rickard conducted in Sierra Madre and in Redding with a teen-ager entrusted to his care by parents charmed by the personable former youth minister.

While admitting that he enjoyed a close relationship with the youth, Rickard has steadfastly denied that he engaged in sex with him.

Two previous trials, in Pasadena and in Redding, ended in hung juries. Jurors split 9 to 3 in Redding last year in favor of conviction on 110 counts of oral copulation with a minor, while jurors in Pasadena reached an 11 to 1 split for conviction on 10 counts.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Robert de Carteret, who is prosecuting the Pasadena case, said prosecutors in Redding plan to begin a retrial in September, after the case here is concluded.

On Tuesday, De Carteret began the retrial with testimony from the alleged victim, who requested that his name be withheld.

The young man, now married and the father of one, told jurors that he met Rickard in August, 1984, and became close friends with the pastor in 1985 after Rickard was hired as youth minister at St. Jude’s Episcopal Church in Burbank. With his parents’ permission, the young man moved to Redding with Rickard that year and lived there with him until September, 1987.

Dinners and Bible study sessions with Rickard evolved into willing sessions of sexual activity that ended with prayer and assurances from Rickard that the activity was not homosexuality but an expression of love, the youth said.

“I wasn’t sure what I was,” the youth testified Tuesday. “I was very confused at the time. I basically went along with what David said because I trusted him and felt it was the right thing to do at the time.”

However, when questioned by Robert Dowd, Rickard’s attorney, the youth said he could not recall specific dates when the sexual activity occurred in Sierra Madre. Dowd told jurors in opening statements Tuesday that he intends to show that Rickard was out of town when the alleged sex acts occurred.

The attorney also brought out under questioning Tuesday that in December, 1987, the young man initiated a meeting with Rickard’s business partner and told him of the alleged sexual relationship. Rickard was at that time operating a residential home for boys in Redding and subsequently lost the business, Dowd said.

The attorney explained that he intends to show, later in the trial, that the youth’s allegations were motivated by anger at being asked by Rickard to leave Redding.

The trial is expected to last as long as three weeks. Testimony is expected from a psychiatrist who examined the alleged victim and from a dozen young men who were counseled by Rickard in the past.