NAPA VALLEY, CA — A former California correctional officer will spend 165 years to life in state prison for sexually abusing three young family relatives, including two girls who prosecutors said endured repeated assaults beginning when they were 4 years old.
Napa County Superior Court Judge Elia Ortiz sentenced Richard Phillip Bardouski, 66, of Montgomery, Alabama, to 165 years to life, plus six years and eight months, during a Friday morning hearing, the Napa County District Attorney's Office said.
Ortiz also ordered Bardouski to pay $950,000 in restitution to the three survivors for their emotional suffering.
The survivors, now young adults, attended the sentencing hearing and delivered victim impact statements to the court. Napa County Deputy District Attorney Shashawnya Worley, who prosecuted the case, also read an impact statement on behalf of their mother.
"While I cannot give these girls their childhoods back or undo the immense pain they've suffered, I hope today's sentence and having the opportunity to have their voices heard gives them a sense of justice and is a big step toward closing this chapter in their lives," Worley said.
Worley also praised the survivors for coming forward, confronting Bardouski, and sharing their experiences.
"Their strength and courage in coming forward, facing the person who abused them, and sharing their stories is remarkable and deserves recognition," Worley said.
A Napa County jury convicted Bardouski following a trial that concluded in mid-June.
Jurors found him guilty of three felony counts of sexual intercourse with a child under 10, three felony counts of sexual penetration with a child under 10, four felony counts of committing a lewd or lascivious act upon a child 14 or younger, and one felony count of committing a lewd or lascivious act upon a 14- or 15-year-old child.
Jurors also found true special allegations that Bardouski committed crimes against multiple victims and that his crimes involved substantial sexual conduct, prosecutors said.
Following the trial, Ortiz found that Bardouski used his position of trust to assault the victims, that the victims were particularly vulnerable, and that Bardouski demonstrated violence, cruelty, viciousness, or callousness while committing the crimes, according to the District Attorney's Office.
Prosecutors said Bardouski sexually assaulted the three children between 2010 and 2015 while he worked as a correctional officer for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
Two survivors reported the abuse in 2023, telling investigators that Bardouski repeatedly sexually assaulted them at his west Napa home when they were between 4 and 9 years old, according to prosecutors.
A third survivor then came forward and reported that Bardouski molested her around 2010, when she was 14, the District Attorney's Office said.
Napa Police Department Detective Dustin Dodd tracked Bardouski to Alabama, where Bardouski had moved after retiring in 2023, according to prosecutors.
With assistance from local law enforcement, Dodd took Bardouski into custody, and authorities extradited him to California for prosecution.
Bardouski will now serve the lengthy prison sentence and owes his three victims a combined $950,000 in court-ordered restitution.
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