Richard Perkins

In the face of what prosecutors described as “overwhelming” evidence of his guilt, a Cody man has accepted 25 to 30 years of prison time for sexually abusing a preteen last year. Statements made in court last week indicate it will likely amount to a life sentence for Richard M. Perkins.

According to charging documents, the now-60-year-old Perkins had sexual intercourse with a girl who was under the age of 13 last spring. In a statement read at the May 1 sentencing hearing in Park County District Court, the child’s mother said the crime turned their family’s lives upside down.

“Any amount of time that you get will never be enough for all the pain you've caused,” the mother wrote to Perkins, adding, “you need to be put away so that you can’t do this to anybody else, ever.”

As part of a deal with prosecutors, Perkins agreed to plead guilty to a felony count of first-degree sexual abuse of a minor, but under a so-called Alford plea. It’s used when a defendant is willing to admit there’s enough evidence to convict them of a crime, but continues to maintain their innocence.

“As far as me doing what they said I did, I will go to my grave saying I did not do it,” Perkins told the court last week.

However, authorities had not only the child’s first-hand account of the abuse, but also DNA evidence and what they described as incriminating statements that Perkins made on jail calls. Specifically, Deputy Park County Prosecuting Attorney Jack Hatfield said testing of a stain found on Perkins’ bedspread indicated with near-certainty that it contained a mixture of Perkins’ seminal fluid and biological material from the victim. Further, he said that in multiple calls to family members and others, Perkins indicated his intent to plead guilty. 

Tracked down in Oregon

The girl reported the abuse shortly after it occurred, in May 2023. When Cody police interviewed Perkins about the allegations, he became upset and ended the conversation, authorities say; he soon left the state.

Then-Detective Rick Tillery testified last year that it was “very obvious” Perkins tried to conceal his location — slipping in and out of Cody, living at a campsite on Cedar Mountain and borrowing strangers’ cellphones to place calls. Perkins was ultimately arrested on June 9 in Bandon, Oregon. Police in Bandon said he’d been living in a wooded area behind a family member’s home.

Perkins has remained in custody since that arrest, being unable to post a $250,000 bond in Park County.

Striking a deal

The case was set to go to trial next month, but was instead resolved with last week’s plea deal. According to Perkins’ attorneys, one reason he took the deal was to avoid putting the victim through a trial. Perkins appeared to have some uncertainty about the arrangement — sobbing and shaking his head during last week’s hearing and expressing some confusion about the proceedings.

His court-appointed attorneys, Curtis Cheney and Kristen Schlattmann, had to take several breaks to speak with him off the record. At one point, Cheney suggested postponing the hearing, noting that Perkins was “pretty emotional” and had “a lot of questions.”

However, that prompted a frustrated Hatfield to withdraw the plea agreement and ask to proceed toward a trial, where a conviction would carry a 25-year minimum.

“If he’s not willing to even do an Alford plea, we’re not willing to waste our time with him,” the prosecutor said of Perkins. “He’s made enough admissions on jail calls recently; we’ll just play them for the jury.”

After a lengthy discussion, Perkins opted to move forward with the deal, pleading “guilty pursuant to the alpha [sic] plea.”

‘I will never forgive you’

The victim had also expressed reluctance about the deal, Hatfield told the court, saying it “took some doing with the victim for her to be willing to accept this.” His comments indicated that she saw the agreement as lenient.

In a statement read during the hearing, the child called Perkins an idiot and an expletive.

“I hate you and you don’t deserve any of my sympathy,” she wrote to Perkins, saying she would never forgive him.

The girl added that she didn’t think Perkins would last long in prison given underlying health problems. She concluded her statement with the line, “Don’t drop the soap.”

In her own statement, the victim’s mother described many nights of nightmares and trauma that will last a lifetime.

“You took so much from her life …,” the mother wrote of the impact on her daughter. She called Perkins a “monster” and his actions “unthinkable.”

A life sentence?

When it was his opportunity to speak, Perkins spent several minutes defending himself. He offered an innocent explanation for why the victim’s DNA might have turned up on his comforter and spoke at length about a dispute with the victim’s mother over personal property.

“I feel I don’t know why I’m being indicated [sic] in this case,” Perkins said.

But as he finished his remarks, District Court Judge Bill Simpson noted that the defendant chose to plead guilty instead of going to trial.

“Whatever you did, I believe you did it,” Simpson said, adding that while Perkins is in prison, “you’ll have plenty of time to think about what you pled to and what you did.”

Given Perkins’ age and unspecified health issues, the judge remarked that the 25- to 30-year sentence is “one that you might not be able to fulfill.”

Before his arrest, Perkins had best been known for collecting, fixing up and giving away thousands of bicycles to area children, but his sexual abuse of the preteen did not stem from that effort.

As of Monday, Perkins remained in the Park County Detention Center, awaiting transport to a Wyoming Department of Corrections facility.