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Ex-Martial Arts School Owner Gets 8 Years For Molesting Morris County Girl, 3rd Case In 5 Years

The onetime owner of a defunct martial arts school must spend more than 6½ years in prison before he'll be eligible for parole for molesting an 11-year-old girl in Morris County, the third such case that he’d been involved in over a five-year span.

Morris County Courthouse

Morris County Courthouse

Photo Credit: morriscountynj.gov

Jurors in Morristown last December found Richard Perry, 49,  guilty of touching the girl on her breasts and vagina during an October 2016 sleepover at his home in the Oak Ridge section of Jefferson Township.

The girl immediately told her aunt, who called police, prosecutors said.

Two months after his October 2016 arrest, Perry was charged with previously fondling a 13-year-old girl in Belleville. Perry pleaded guilty to criminal sexual conduct in Superior Court in Newark and was sentenced to 364 days in jail and four years probation, records show. 

Five years earlier, Perry was accused of sexually assaulting a 9-year-old girl. Charges were downgraded as part of a plea deal that resulted in a fine, records show.

Superior Court Judge David H. Ironson this time sentenced Perry to eight years for sexual assault and four years for child endangerment, with both terms running at the same time.

The Jamaican-born Perry, who is not a U.S. citizen, will have to serve 85% of his sentence under the No Early Release Act and must register under Megan’s Law. He is to remain under parole supervision for life – although he most likely will be deported following his release from prison.

Perry, who previously owned Master Perry's World Class Martial Arts on Union Avenue in Belleville, also cannot have any contact with the victim or her family, under the terms of his sentences.

He remained held in the Morris County Correctional Facility pending assignment to a state facility.

Morris County Prosecutor Fredric M. Knapp thanked Jefferson Township police and his own Sex Crimes/Child Endangerment Unit for their work in the Oak Ridge case, which was handled by Assistant Prosecutors Reema Sethi Kareer and Jessica Sparano assisted by Detectives Michael Bost and Melissa Enslen and Victim Advocate Amanda Holloway of his office.

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