RICHARDSONS' BUST: "NOTHING DYNAMIC"

"No Jesus, not the whole house," former City Councilman Chuck Richardson
said when Richmond Police proffered a search warrant around 9 p.m., April
8, for his home at 906 Blanton Ave.

Richardson's pool game came to a halt Thursday night when more than a dozen
officers from the department's Firearms and Drug Enforcement (FADE) unit,
along with two special agents from the state's Alcoholic Beverage Control
department, swarmed the residence and confiscated about 45 marijuana plants
downstairs and 25 to 30 needles upstairs, most with traces of heroin,
according to police. Officers at the scene estimated the street value for
the pot to be as much as $60,000.

"We're going to search this one a little differently because of who he is,"
Lt. Steven Drew had said to the FADE squad in a briefing at the 2nd
Precinct a half-hour earlier. "There is nothing dynamic about this at all,"
he stressed. And he instructed them: "If you move something, put it back.
Be careful what you say."

Troubles pepper Richardson's past. In 1995, after being arrested on a
heroin distribution charge, he resigned the 5th District council seat he
had held for 18 years. He served 22 months in prison and was released in
October 1997. Style interviewed Richardson for a cover story in 2002 about
his efforts, as a felon, to have his voting rights restored and to return
to Richmond politics.

Investigators spent weeks gathering details from an informant who claimed
that Richardson's son, Karl, 34, had been growing numerous marijuana plants
in the basement. Then police obtained a warrant to search the premises.

Richardson and his wife, Phyllis, were the only ones in the house when
police arrived. When told of the warrant, he seemed cooperative, leading
police around back to the basement apartment where his son apparently
lives, saying the door was unlocked. It wasn't. Officers breached the door
with a ramming device, shattering it.

"God damn," Richardson muttered softly. He turned away from the house, took
a few steps toward the garage where the couple's Mercedes was parked and
walked back again.

"Police! Search warrant!" the officers exclaimed one by one upon entering,
then disappeared. A basement window had been boarded over. Three large
exhaust pipes stemmed from the patio and rested on the back of a blanketed
air-conditioning unit.

Dressed in a black T-shirt and black jeans, his hair in a ponytail,
Richardson gazed on, visibly upset.

The scent of marijuana was unmistakable. "He knew," an officer remarked of
whether Richardson was aware of the plants, adding: "You can smell the pot
from the door."

Outfitted with latex gloves, investigators combed the premises for several
hours, some using digital cameras to document the scene. They retrieved
apple-green marijuana plants ranging in height from several inches to
several feet and placed them in black plastic bags, ready for the evidence
room.

Eventually, Karl Richardson arrived and police seized him. They charged him
with possession of cocaine and possession of marijuana with intent to
distribute. They charged his father with possession of heroin.

Shortly before 11 p.m., Chuck and Karl Richardson left the house in
handcuffs, the senior's brown leather jacket draped over his shoulders.
Phyllis Richardson watched her husband and son taken away, one hand propped
open the porch door, the other fallen to her side.

"This was a low-entry search warrant," explained Sgt. Anthony Franklin of
what police here called a soft approach. "This has nothing to do with him
personally." - Brandon Walters