While negotiating a price to sell her 5-year-old daughter for sex to a man who turned out to be an informant, Jennifer Richards wrote out guidelines that she would agree to during the sale, according to her testimony Thursday.
No sex act would be allowed that the child was not comfortable with. Richards would first teach the girl how to perform sex acts before the child did them. Richards would supervise the sex with the informant and the child. Richards would initially only allow oral sex between the informant and the child, but nothing further.
“Were you going to allow (the child) to dictate how this relationship progressed?” asked Block's lawyer, Jimmy Parks Jr.
“Yes,” Richards, 25, responded.
Is it appropriate for a mother to do that to her young daughter? Parks queried.
“At the time, I thought so, yes,” Richards said.
Richards testified that she wrote out the parameters without help from anyone else.
The unusual testimony closed out the government's case Thursday against Richards' former boyfriend, Sean Michael Block. Prosecutors rested after the FBI agent leading the investigation testified. The defense called just one witness, a computer expert, then rested.
Closing arguments are expected Thursday afternoon before Senior U.S. District Judge Harry Lee Hudspeth.
Block, who is charged with aiding and abetting Richards in the attempted sale and a separate count of distributing child pornography, is not expected to testify.
Richards, spending the second day on the witness stand, testified that she enjoyed the “BDSM” lifestyle — the bondage, the degrading treatment, the rough sex and pushing the limits of pain for erotic stimulation — with Block, 40.
But she said she didn't like enduring pain or beatings in her everyday life. The pair met in January or February 2008 while working as servers at the Cheesecake Factory. Block was married at the time and carrying on the affair with Richards.
Richards testified that it was Block's idea to sell the 5-year-old child and that she didn't put a stop to the plans out of fear he would hit her.
On Wednesday, Richards testified that Block had a tendency to beat her, apart from their sexual role-playing. While role-playing, for instance, Richards would drink Block's urine during a “punishment” phase after being disobedient to Block.
During their relationship, the pair exchanged phone texts and online chat messages in which the two were sexually stimulated by discussing unusual sex acts. For instance, Block discussed wanting to have sex with Richards' daughter.
Eventually, Block met the FBI informant at the restaurant and offered Richards' 5-year-old after discussing the matter with Richards, according to testimony. In exchange for letting the informant “groom” the child for sex, Richards would get a used car, an apartment in Stone Oak and her bills paid, according to evidence and testimony. Block and Richards also discussed taking video and pictures of the informant to blackmail him, according to the electronic communications.
But the pair was arrested separately in August after the FBI identified the child and were able to get her and her 10-month-old sister to safety.
FBI agent Rex Miller testified that Block, under questioning by agents, seemed quite “impressed with himself” for putting the sale plan into motion.
“He said he put the wheels in motion and wanted to see how this would play out,” Miller testified.
During questioning by the agents, Block also claimed the proposed sale was part of a sting he was running and that he planned to turn over evidence to law officers. He also claimed he was running something similar to the television show “To Catch a Predator.”
According to Miller, Block was concerned on how he would appear in booking photos after his arrest.
Miller said Block chuckled while agents prepared to take his picture and process him for booking.
When one asked what was so funny, Block noted that celebrity booking photos always portrayed the celebrity as disheveled.
“He always wondered why they looked so rough," Miller said. “He was concerned that he had not had time to shave or comb his hair.”
If convicted of the sale charge, Block faces 30 years to life in prison. Richards pleaded guilty to attempting to sell the child knowing she would be used in sex acts. As part of a plea deal, she agreed to testify in hopes of shortening her prison term. She testified that the least she could get under the deal is 20 years.
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