STEUBENVILLE RAPE CASE Ohio teen must register 20 years as sex offender

Associated Press

COLUMBUS

An Ohio high school football player convicted of raping a 16-year-old girl after an alcohol-fueled party was ordered Friday to register as a sex offender every six months for the next 20 years.

Jefferson County Judge Thomas Lipps gave 17-year-old Ma’Lik Richmond the state’s second-toughest sex-offender classification — Tier II — the same that his co-defendant received in June.

Unlike adult sex offenders, Richmond’s name won’t be included on publicly accessible websites. He can request to have the sex- offender classification removed later based on his history of rehabilitation.

Richmond’s attorney, Walter Madison, declined to comment on the judge’s decision.

The judge’s options for requiring Richmond to report to authorities ranged from every 90 days for life to once a year for 10 years.

In March, Lipps convicted Richmond and co-defendant Trent Mays, 17, in the rape of the West Virginia girl after a party in Steubenville in eastern Ohio in August 2012.

Richmond is serving at least a year in the Ohio juvenile-detention system.

Mays also was found guilty of using his phone to take a picture of the underage girl naked. He received a two-year minimum prison sentence.