Charles Robert Richey

Charles Robert Richey (October 16, 1923 – March 19, 1997) was a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia.

Education and career Richey was born in Middleburg, Ohio, Richey. He received an Artium Baccalaureus degree from Ohio Wesleyan University in 1945 and a Bachelor of Laws from Case Western Reserve University School of Law in 1948. While at Ohio Wesleyan University, he left in early 1944 to serve one year in the United States Army Corps of Engineers at Fort Hayes, Ohio, where he was a procurement specialist and a contract personnel specialist.

He was a legislative counsel to United States Representative Frances P. Bolton from 1948 to 1949. In 1949, he was the executive secretary of the Young Republican National Federation. He was in private practice in Washington, D.C. and Chevy Chase, Maryland from 1949 to 1971, also working as a speech and debate coach for American University from 1954 to 1955. He was special counsel to Montgomery County, Maryland, on Council Redistricting from 1965 to 1966, and was a member of the Montgomery County Board of Appeals from 1965 to 1967, serving as chairman from 1966 to 1967. He was general counsel to the Maryland Public Service Commission from 1967 to 1971.

Federal judicial service Richey was nominated by President Richard Nixon on April 14, 1971, to the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, to a seat vacated by Judge Edward Matthew Curran. He was confirmed by the United States Senate on April 29, 1971, and received his commission on May 5, 1971. He assumed senior status on January 23, 1997. His service was terminated on March 19, 1997, due to his death in Washington D.C.

During this time, Joseph Califano was representing both the DNC and the Washington Post and, as he related in his own memoirs, was increasingly astonished at Richey's unorthodox behavior behind the bench. When Richey asked all parties to join in a press release announcing that all legal activity would be postponed until after the election, Califano refused, and claimed that "Richey was furious". This episode was witnessed by criminal attorney Harold Ungar, who told Califano, "Joe, in my thirty years of practice, I've never seen anything like this. Never! Pacing in circles, he mumbled over again, 'Never, never, never'".