CHILDREN STAND BY 'MR. RICHIE'

City parks officials yesterday shooed children away from the Just 4 The
Kidz Outreach center in Harrisburg's Hall Manor housing project.

That's because the squat, brick building that served as a clubhouse and
study center is no longer open to children, following the arrest of the
organization's director.

Richard Soto, who lived across the street from the center he founded and
operated, was one of 29 people indicted by a federal grand jury during an
eight-month drug investigation. He's accused of heroin trafficking,
authorities said.

Yesterday, Mayor Stephen R. Reed called it an unfortunate case of a fallen
role model. But in the projects, where kids strolled aimlessly with
seemingly little to do, they weren't giving up on the man they knew as "Mr.
Richie."

"He kept me off the streets," said Chris Brown, 14, who played in a flag
football league organized by Soto. "I don't think he was selling."

While news of Soto's arrest swept Hall Manor, he's remembered there not for
his alleged crimes, but for good deed after good deed.

Soto, a street-wise man in his 30s, presented himself as a reformed drug
dealer who had found God and his true calling as a community activist and
urban role model.

His approach was to reach children by showing them the errors of his own ways.

The city-owned building, which Reed personally approved for Soto's use as a
clubhouse, became an after-school hub for the children of Hall Manor.

There were computers for games and school work. Soto enlisted kids to clean
local fields, then coached them in football there.

"We played games and stuff," said Khalid Robinson, 11. "He gave away food."

But Soto's proudest achievement was coaching a makeshift team of boys and a
few girls from the projects to a championship in a flag football tournament
in Boston, and then Florida last winter.

"I went to Boston, but I missed out on Florida," said Aaron Pitts, 12, a
lineman on one of the teams.

The children said Soto was hoping to replicate that success this year.
Rashon Selvey, 12, signed up for flag football and attended a few
practices, which began about two weeks ago. Nelson Thomas, 15, wanted to
play wide receiver.

With Soto's arrest, the boys fear football will fall through.

"There's nothing to do," Pitts said. "Everything was because of Mr. Richie."

The kids aren't the only ones feeling let down.

Reed supported Soto's work, along with City Council members. In a news
conference, Reed lashed out, excoriating Soto as an impostor.

"That was all a front," said Reed, noting that police found about $1,000
worth of heroin packaged for sale in a desk at the outreach center, which
was boarded up yesterday by city workers. "That was camouflage."

"I'm saddened and disappointed, but it doesn't diminish what was
accomplished by the children," said Councilman Otto Banks, who was close to
Soto. "There's a void now, and someone needs to step up to the plate."

Soto's wife, Charrene, who is nine months pregnant with her husband's first
child, expressed bitterness at how city officials have written him off.

"My husband has a heart of gold," she said. "Anybody who knows him knows
that. He loved the kids and he loved what he was doing."

But Mrs. Soto admitted that her husband hadn't been operating the clubhouse
for sometime because the water had been turned off.

She suggested that her husband may have been "hanging out" with the wrong
people, but vehemently denied that he was selling drugs.

Among children, the opinion is mixed. One 12-year-old said Soto, who was
unemployed, may have needed to sell drugs to "put food on the table."

Others were sure of his innocence. All said they never saw any drug activity.

Either way, the kids said they still see "Mr. Richie" as a role model.

"He looked out for us," said Tyrelle White, 13. "Nobody's ever going to do
the stuff he did."

Staff writer Theodore Decker contributed to this report.