Molester Sentenced to 21 Years in Prison

A former Palmdale City Council candidate, found guilty of molesting two Pacoima-area girls while posing as a child abuse investigator, was sentenced Monday to 21 years and four months in prison.

Richard Russell Burriss, 49, who ran unsuccessfully for the City Council in 1986, pleaded for clemency, saying that he deserved a six-year sentence and would seek therapy to rehabilitate himself while behind bars.

But Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Marsha Revel handed down the maximum sentence after an emotional hearing in which the mother of one victim addressed the court.

“I’m very pleased,” Deputy Dist. Atty. Susan Powers said of the sentence. “I think the judge showed the defendant and others . . . we will punish those who try to take advantage of vulnerable children.”

Burriss, a computer analyst, was convicted May 22 of seven counts of lewd acts on a child, three counts of residential burglary and one count of an attempted lewd act on a child.

He was charged with molesting two girls in Glendale and Pacoima in 1994.

Burriss took photographs, which were introduced as evidence during the trial, of one of the girls. Police said they found the pictures stored in his computer.

The victims’ relatives testified that Burriss claimed to be a Children’s Services worker investigating charges of child abuse, and that he threatened to take the girls away if he could not examine them alone.

The relatives said Burriss flashed a badge and showed identification. Prosecutors said the ID was fake.

Burriss was charged in 1989 with molesting two other girls. The trial in that case ended with a hung jury. He eventually pleaded no contest to assault and was sentenced to three years probation.