Richard W. Roberts

Richard Warren Roberts (born June 21, 1953) is an inactive senior United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia.

Early life and education Roberts was born in New York City, and is African American.

Roberts studied mathematics at Vassar College, graduating in 1974 with a Artium Baccalaureus degree cum laude. He continued his education at both the School for International Training in Brattleboro, Vermont, and Columbia Law School in New York City. In 1978, he received a Master of International Administration from the School for International Training, and a Juris Doctor from Columbia Law School. The vision of this organization is to help provide more black male role models for children in various communities across the United States. Roberts held the positions of secretary and deputy general counsel for the Washington, D.C., chapter. He is a Master of the Edward Bennett Williams Inn of Court; an Archon in Sigma Pi Phi, Epsilon boulé; and a member of The DePriest 15 and of the Judicial Council of the Washington Bar Association. He was earlier a member of the National Black Prosecutors Association and of the National Conference of Black Lawyers, Washington, D.C. Chapter.

According to the Biography by the National Conference on Citizenship, Roberts has held various academic, community, and legal positions. In academic settings, he served for four terms on the board of trustees of Vassar College, has been a visiting faculty member of the Harvard Law School Trial Advocacy Workshop for over 37 years, and was an adjunct professor of trial practice at Georgetown University Law Center. He also served on the faculty of the Department of Justice National Advocacy Center, and has been a writing coach for first year students at Howard Law School. He has served on the board of directors of the Historical Society of the D.C. Circuit; the steering committee of the African-American Alumnae/i of Vassar College; and the board of directors of the Alumnae and Alumni of Vassar College. the murder of two black Salt Lake City joggers who were killed for racial reasons by Joseph Paul Franklin, a white supremacist.

While prosecuting Franklin, the 27-year-old Roberts met Terry Mitchell, a 16-year-old wounded survivor of Franklin's attack on the joggers and one of two key eyewitnesses at his trial. Mitchell alleged 35 years later that Roberts raped her repeatedly, "nearly every day for several weeks", before and after the trial. She says he obtained her silence by telling her that if their sexual relationship ever came to light it would surely result in a mistrial for Franklin and his subsequent release.

After his tenure as a trial attorney for the Department of Justice, Roberts joined the international law private practice, Covington & Burling.

In 1986, Roberts was then appointed as an assistant United States attorney for the Southern District of New York Judge Karen L. Henderson signed Roberts's certificate of disability, allowing him to take early senior status. That same day, Terry Mitchell, the eyewitness from the Franklin trial, filed a federal suit against him, accusing him of repeatedly raping her when she was a witness in a high-profile Utah murder case 35 years earlier. Roberts said that her accusations “are perplexing and demonstrably false” and “flat wrong.” Roberts's lawyers told members of the press that their client, who was 27 and unmarried at the time, did indeed have a brief consensual sexual relationship with Mitchell but that it occurred after the trial ended. Mitchell also filed a judicial misconduct complaint, and the ensuing extensive investigation found that neither the facts nor the law supported her claims, conclusions that Mitchell did not challenge. Her lawsuit was dismissed with prejudice in 2021. That order was affirmed on appeal, a decision Mitchell did not challenge.

Sibley suit Montgomery Blair Sibley, the last lawyer for the late Deborah Jeane Palfrey, sued Roberts for his refusal to file Sibley's request to have a prior judge's gag order lifted, that forced Sibley to keep Palfrey's customer list private.

Awards and honors

For Roberts's prosecutorial efforts against Joseph Paul Franklin, the U.S. Attorney General awarded him with a special commendation. When Roberts was a civil rights prosecutor in the Justice Department, he was hired into the Attorney General's Honors Program. He was bestowed the Outstanding Service to Vassar Award.