Cloud County elects man convicted of child sex crime in 2006

A 61-year-old Concordia man elected by residents in November to sit on the Cloud County Community College Board of Trustees has a 2006 conviction for sexually assaulting an 8-year-old girl in Johnson county.

Richard Raymond Hubert spent roughly four years in prison for aggravated indecent liberties with a child before being released to Cloud County in 2010, according to Kansas Department of Corrections records. Hubert has to register as a sex offender for life. Hubert told The Eagle in a phone interview Wednesday that he never announced his background except to people closest to him because of shame.

“I took a plea because my lawyer told me it didn’t matter if I was innocent or guilty, I would be found guilty,” Hubert said. “It’s hard to talk about even.”

Hubert said his attorney feared Hubert’s case couldn’t win against prosecuting attorney Paul Morrison, who was running for Kansas Attorney General.

Morrison was successful in his bid but later resigned because of a sex scandal.

Hubert said the shame of that day led to a divorce with his wife, whom he later remarried. He said he feared announcing his background because of the stigma associated with a sex crime against a child.

Adrian Douglas, president of Cloud County Community College, said nothing was brought up about Hubert’s background during the election.

“There is nothing I can do about it because he qualified as a candidate and was duly elected by the citizens of Cloud County,” Douglas said. “It’s not our choice, the county sets the rules and requirement for elections.”

Hubert will start his four-year term in January. An article on the Community College’s website says Hubert works at Rod’s Food Store, is a Cloud County graduate and previously ran for the board on an unsuccessful write-in campaign in 2017.

In the Nov. 5 election, Hubert won one of the three seats up for grabs on the six-person board with roughly 21% of votes.

“The only thing I would say is anyone who has been incarcerated should get a second chance,” Hubert said. “I would just like the opportunity to serve this community and the college that I went to and if an incident in the past precludes me from doing that, then I think that people lose the opportunity to take care of talents that people have.”

This story was originally published December 4, 2019 at 5:44 PM.