Richard Hayes Stone, child molester who actress Teri Hatcher helped put in prison, 70
La N
http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_10265429?source=most_viewed
Child molester who Teri Hatcher helped put in prison dies of colon cancer
By Sean Webby
Mercury News
Article Launched: 08/21/2008 11:21:06 AM PDT
The former Sunnyvale engineer who "Desparate Housewives" star Teri Hatcher
helped put in prison for molesting two young girls, one of whom committed
suicide, has died of colon cancer.
Richard Hayes Stone, Hatcher's former uncle, had been serving a 14-year
sentence when he died Tuesday at the Alvarado Medical Center in San Diego,
according to Craig Ostendorf, a spokesman for Chuckawalla Valley State
Prison in Blythe.
Stone, 70, had been in prison for six years.
"It closes the book on a very, very sad tragedy," said Santa Clara County
Deputy District Attorney Chuck Gillingham, who prosecuted Stone.
"Unfortunately those who are still alive will always suffer from his
actions."
In 2002, Sunnyvale teenager Sarah Van Cleemput shot herself in the head
leaving behind a note that said: "You're probably thinking a normal teenager
doesn't do this; well, ask Dick!"
According to prosecutors, "Dick" was Stone, a former engineer at National
Semiconductor who was a trusted family friend of the Van Cleemputs. The
families vacationed together.
After reading about the case while visiting her parents in her native
Sunnyvale, Hatcher contacted prosecutors. She told Gillingham that Stone
molested her, too, when she was a child.
Gillingham flew down to Los Angeles with a Sunnyvale public safety officer
to take Hatcher's statement.
"When we went to interview her, she almost canceled," Gillingham told the
Mercury News in March 2006. "But she had been with
her daughter that morning and was thinking if, God forbid, something
happened to her daughter that someone would come forward and do the right
thing."
With a tape recording running, Hatcher explained in detail how her uncle -
the then-husband of her mother's sister - allegedly molested her in the late
1960s and early '70s when she was no more than 7.
In 2006, Hatcher told Vanity Fair magazine that at the time she talked to
the authorities, she was afraid if her story came out in the tabloids, she
would be seen as a has-been actress seeking publicity.
"At the end of the day, there was no way I was not going to put this girl
first, before whatever damage might be done to me," Hatcher told the
magazine.
After prosecutors gave the defense a transcript of Hatcher's interview,
Stone pleaded guilty Oct. 24, 2002, leaving no need for a trial nor a court
appearance for Hatcher.
Almost exactly two years later came the premiere of "Desparate Housewives,"
which rejuvenated Hatcher's career.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Contact Sean Webby at swe...@mercurynews.com or at (408) 920-5003.
Kenny McCormack
La N <nilita20...@yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_10265429?source=most_viewed
>Child molester who Teri Hatcher helped put in prison dies of colon cancer
>By Sean Webby
>Mercury News
>Article Launched: 08/21/2008 11:21:06 AM PDT
>
> The former Sunnyvale engineer who "Desparate Housewives" star Teri Hatcher
>helped put in prison for molesting two young girls, one of whom committed
>suicide, has died of colon cancer.
desparate? ("typo" appears [at least] twice - so maybe not a typo).
The sort of thing not caught by a spelling checker...
Charlene
wrote:
> In article <dIprk.9130$%b7.1492@edtnps82>,
No, it's a typo. "Desperate" is a word, as is "disparate" (with
different meanings, of course), but "desparate" is not an English
word.
wd44
TimeTraveller
leaving behind a note that said: "You're probably thinking a normal
teenager
doesn't do this; well, ask Dick!"
Too bad she didn't just kill him and seek therapy for herself.
La N
"Charlene" <charlene...@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:e8b0cdef-1aa4-4ba7...@l64g2000hse.googlegroups.com...
Good call on the part of youze two.
When I used to work for some smaller rags, often typos would get past the
scrutiny of the proofreaders, much to the annoyance of the discriminating
readership. But, with modern technology, I would have thought it obvious
that writers would have all their stuff spellchecked before going to press.
- nilita