Missouri man faces trial for sexually abusing child – ABC 6 News

(ABC 6 News) – A former Rochester resident appeared in Olmsted County District Court Thursday on sexual abuse charges dating back nearly a decade.

Richard Anthony Matney, now 42, was charged in 2015 with solicitation of a child to have sex, endangerment of a child and sexual abuse of a child under the age of 13 after he allegedly showed a child sex videos and later forced him to drink alcohol and attempted to perform sexual acts with him.

In 2021, Matney pleaded guilty to having sexual communication with a child. He was sentenced to 45 days in the Olmsted County Jail and 3 years of probation.

According to 2021 court documents, the state described Matney's behavior as “aggressive grooming behavior,” but in his plea he claimed he showed the child pornography videos as a means of getting revenge on another party.

According to court documents, Matney was not required to register as a sex offender in Minnesota, but his plea was deliberately changed at sentencing to avoid registration in Missouri.

In 2022, Matney allegedly violated the terms of his probation and was ordered to attend a sex offender program in his new home of Lees Summit, Missouri.

In 2023, attorney Dan McIntosh appealed Matney's guilty plea, arguing that his conviction should be overturned or revoked because his statements during the hearing did not include an overt statement that he intended to arouse or engage in sexual conduct with the child.

In March 2024, Matney officially withdrew his guilty plea and was retried on two counts of second-degree sexual abuse of a juvenile and one count of child endangerment.

The amended sexual communication charge was dropped after Matney attempted to contest his second-degree sexual abuse charge.

“Matney now wants to have it all and eat it all at the same time,” the state's rebuttal states. “He wants to use forfeiture as a sword to preserve the benefits of his deal by avoiding a second-degree sexual abuse charge while still having the benefit of a trial for the lesser offense of electronic communication of
sexual depictions of a child, which were apparently only charged as part of the agreement.”

Matney is scheduled to appear for a pretrial hearing on October 22, followed by a jury trial on October 28.