Ma’lik Richmond, who was 16 when he was convicted last year of raping a 16-year-old girl in Steubenville in 2012, “recently completed his designated time” at a juvenile correctional facility, Richmond’s family said in a statement released by attorney Walter Madison.
Richmond had been sentenced to a minimum of one year in a juvenile correctional facility, but he was credited for the time he served before the trial.
“He is a better, stronger person and looks forward to school, life and spending time with family,” the statement said.
Bob Fitzsimmons, the attorney for Richmond’s victim, called it “disheartening” that the statement failed to mention the girl at the center of the case “whom (Richmond) and his co-defendant scarred for life.”
Richmond and Steubenville High School football teammate Trenton Mays were convicted in March of the rape after a trial that divided the football-crazed Rust Belt town of Steubenville.
Lurid text messages, social media posts, as well as cell phone pictures and videos helped raise the national profile of the case, which revolved around Richmond and Mays’ actions during a series of end-of-summer parties in August 2012. It attracted the attention of bloggers, who questioned everything from the behavior of the football team to the integrity of the investigation.
Mays, who was 17 when he was convicted, also was found guilty of disseminating a nude photo of a minor and was sentenced to two years.
Both Richmond and Mays have been classified as tier II sex offenders and will be required to report to their local sheriff’s office every six months for the next 20 years.
CNN’s Poppy Harlow contributed to this report.
