Hello, my name is David Richards. I am currently incarcerated at the Federal Correctional Institution Elkton in Lisbon, Ohio. I have been in Federal custody since February 20, 2018.
I was born in Toledo, Ohio on November 12, 1956. I was adopted at the age of 6 months by Basil and Joanne (Jenny) Richards. I have always known I was adopted. Throughout my childhood, I do not remember ever having the desire to know my birth parents. I have a sister (also adopted) from whom I’ve been estranged since 2002. I went to a Catholic grade school through the 7th grade. At the beginning of my 8th grade year, I was expelled for pulling a prank on the Math teacher (amazingly, I remember her name – Sister Clarice) and finished the 8th grade at a public school. I worked in restaurants while I went to a Catholic High School and graduated in 1974. I worked for a couple of years, then I enlisted in the U.S. Navy in April of 1976. I served a bit over four years, got out and went back to Toledo. But I still had the wanderlust, so to speak, and I reenlisted in September of 1980 and kept going till I retired in 1996. I worked in Navy Recruiting for most of my enlistment. I met my wife through that job, and was married in 1987. I have two daughters, Ashley (age 35) and Hannah (age 20). I have never met my youngest daughter. I do have a very tenuous email relationship with her. I also have two grandsons, Vinny (age 11) and Ezra (age 6). Ezra was born while I was here at Elkton, and I have not met him either, as I have been estranged from Ashley since I’ve been here. I worked a few short-term jobs until I got hired by the U.S. Probation Office and worked there 8 years. It was there that I first got in trouble. I won’t go into those details here, but I lost everything then when I served 17 months in state prison. I got out and went back to my default job – restaurants. I even worked at a racino (a horse track with a casino) for a couple of years. During those years, I qualified with the Veterans Administration for a program called “Vocational Rehabilitation”, or “Voc Rehab”. This program is designed for Veterans with barriers to employment. Mine were my age, my felony, and the fact that I did not have a degree. I was accepted into the program and received a full-ride scholarship to Notre Dame College of Ohio, where I graduated with a 3.888 GPA and earned a BA in Human Resources Development. While attending college (most of which was online), I secured a position with the VA Hospital in Cleveland in their Human Resources Department. I worked there a little over 2 years, then managed to get myself in trouble again, this time with the Feds. And so here I am. As I’m sure it is with most people, there are a lot of gaps in my bio here. Perhaps the “filler” stories will come out soon!
