Santa Barbara – Just in time for the 2013 Christmas Holiday, on December 16, 2013 Richard Douglas Box, 69, was arrested and booked into Santa Barbara County Jail on various charges stemming from an episode of alleged sexual assault, rape, and false imprisonment. The charges and the alleged offenses against multiple females—his wife and stepdaughter–were serious enough at the time to impose a bail amount of $2,000,000.
Pursuant to judicial proceedings shortly thereafter, and in spite of Box posting bond on that bail amount, the Santa Barbara Superior Court imposed a Temporary Restraining Order upon him with terms that precluded him from being within 500 yards of his residence or within the same distance of the alleged victims. Additional courtroom proceedings regarding an alleged child molestation that took place in Long Beach, California previously produced an additional protective order designed to keep Box from within 500 yards of a specific Long Beach location or from within the same distance from the alleged victim in that case as well.
But Mr. Box, apparently confident that the $200,000 bond he had posted in the Santa Barbara case gave him some sort of immunity from further enforcement prior to any trial, reportedly ignored those restraining orders, and was reported to have violated them. According to Santa Barbara Police Department Public Information Officer Sgt. Riley Harwood, SBPD Detectives initiated an investigation into those reports and learned that “on or around January 24, 2014, Box violated the conditions of the court order pertaining to the protected Long Beach location.” With that information at hand, Detectives then learned that Box made the same misstep in Santa Barbara on February 15th.
Armed with that information, SBPD Detective Brian Larson obtained a $1,000,000 arrest warrant for Box and a high-priority investigation into his whereabouts was begun. For the next month, however, Box was nowhere to be found…until March 14th, when Narcotics Detectives—working another case with no relationship to Box—spotted him at a Santa Barbara restaurant and summarily took him into custody. He was promptly taken to Santa Barbara County Jail and booked on the warrant, charged with violation of a domestic restraining order and violation of a court order.
No bail amount has yet been set, but if granted, it will presumably be enough to make an impression upon Mr. Box.
Photo: Courtesy Santa Barbara County Jail Booking
Read more:
KCOY: Santa Barbara realtor surrenders in sexual assault investigation
EDHAT: Richard Box arrested for violation of court orders
KEYT: Richard Box accused of molesting a second child, years ago
