Convicted Child Rapist Has To Go: Neighbors

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — People in a Rhode Island neighborhood are trying to get help from the state to get a convicted child rapist out of the neighborhood. Richard Gardner, 52, has been the center of attention on New York Avenue in Providence.

The Washington Park Neighborhood Association held an emergency meeting Wednesday alongside the Providence Police Department to discuss Gardner's presence in the neighborhood, according to NBC10.

"There's fear" over Gardner living in the neighborhood, Providence Public Safety Commissioner Steven Pare, the NBC10 report said.

“None of the children are OK with this. They’re afraid. What are we going to do now to protect ourselves?” a woman at the meeting said.

Police are no longer watching Gardner's home 24/7 following an arrest earlier this month, but Pare said there is still a police presence. “You will not see them but they’re there and we’re doing everything we can to monitor,” Pare said, according to the NBC10 report. “He’s got a right to live there."

Gardner was arrested on Nov. 2 on charges of giving false documentation to an official and giving false information to a Registrar of Vital Statistics. Police allege he committed both offenses on Oct. 12 when he and his then fiancee went to Cranston City Hall to apply for a marriage license.

According to Patriot Ledger, Gardner was charged with kidnapping and sexually assaulting four chidren, ages 6 to 12, in 1987. He then sexually assaulted three children in Rhode Island and Massachusetts while he was free on bail.

See more on Patch:

• Richard Gardner, Convicted Child Rapist, Back In Custody: Police
• Weymouth Sex Offender Ordered Held Without Bail

In 1989, he was convicted of the Rhode Island charges and sentenced to 190 years in prison. The same year, he pleaded guilty to the 1987 charges and was sentenced to 10 to 15 more years. Then, in 1991, he peladed guilty to the 1988 Massachusetts charges, landing him another 7-and-a-half to 10 years.

Gardner was imprisoned until 2016 when he was released to Rhode Island to begin a probation sentence, the Ledger reported. He entered a library during this time, violating his probation and getting another year behind bars.

Then, in November 2018, he faced the misdemeanor charges concerning his marriage certificate application in Cranston.

Pare is addressing the situtation and is bringing it up with state authorities, NBC10 reported.

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Photo credit: Massachusetts Sex Offender Registry