A Florida court sentenced a former GW Law School professor to 15 years of sex offender probation Tuesday, five months after undercover investigators arrested him on charges of attempting to seduce underage girls online.
Richard Donald Lieberman, a 65-year-old who periodically taught at GW as a part-time lecturer from 2007 to the fall 2010 semester, will also abandon his law career by resigning from the D.C. and Maryland bars as part of the plea deal. In March, Florida law enforcement officials caught Lieberman while posing as 10- and 13-year-old girls during an investigation aimed at busting potential child predators.
Lieberman must register as a sex offender in Maryland, where he lives, Chip Thullbery, a spokesman for the Florida State Attorney’s Office, said. Lieberman worked at the K Street law firm McCarthy, Sweeney & Harkaway in addition to his time at GW. If he continues to work in the District, he must register as a sex offender in the city as well, according to the D.C. sex offender registration code.
He pleaded guilty to counts of receiving computer statements for the purpose of sexual contact with a child, using a computer to seduce a child and transmitting harmful material to a minor.
In his talks with the detectives posing as underage girls on Yahoo instant messenger, he initially said he was 25-years old, but later feigned being a 45-year-old who taught law and lived in D.C., according to court documents. He also “engaged in very explicit conversation about sex” and showed the detectives websites with male and female genitalia, saying he would “love to see some nice” photos.
Officials combed through Lieberman’s computer and cell phone for child pornography in early January, but found nothing, only to later discover he visited one underage girl’s profile on a laptop and stored her contact information on his iPhone, according to the documents. The court charges correspond with Lieberman’s activities from Aug. 11 to 25, 2010.
Lieberman is barred from living within 1,000 feet of a school, child care center, park or playground and is forbidden from entering any of those locations during his sentence. He also cannot use or own a computer until his sex offender treatment program establishes a “safety plan” for him to access the Internet — which can also be monitored.
Under court rules, he is restricted by a 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew and set to be electronically monitored for the first 30 months of the probation term. Lieberman cannot have any contact with underage individuals unless both approved by his a probation officer and accompanied by another adult.
