A convicted sexual predator who was once on the FBI’s most-wanted list was released Friday after serving a lengthy federal prison term, only to be immediately rearrested by the Long Beach Police Department on another set of charges.
Richard Steve Goldberg, a former Boeing engineer, gained national infamy in the early 2000s for fleeing to Canada, where he lived under an assumed name for five years before someone recognized him as one of the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives.
Authorities at the time had been trying to arrest Goldberg for allegedly luring neighborhood girls to his home and abusing them. Investigators described how he cultivated a clubhouse-type atmosphere where he used TV, pet ducks and rabbits, and computer games to entice children he babysat.
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Police said they began investigating Goldberg in 2001 after some of the children he watched told their parents they’d seen pictures of naked girls flash across his computer screen.
The Long Beach Police Department said they amassed evidence showing Goldberg had molested six girls ranging from 5 to 8 years old, according to news reports from the time, but he fled before he could be arrested.
Once Canadian authorities captured and deported him in 2007, Goldberg was tried in federal court, where he quickly pleaded guilty to one count of using his victims to produce child pornography.
The judge who sentenced Goldberg to 20 years in prison called him “a deeply disturbed individual” who showed “immorality and lack of remorse beyond belief.”
Goldberg, however, never faced prosecution for the underlying molestation charges he fled to Canada to avoid.
For more than 20 years, the original case that Long Beach police built against him has lain dormant in state court, where Goldberg was accused of crimes that were “overlapping and related” to the federal case but “separate allegations,” according to a description in court records.
Before his release from federal prison, Long Beach police coordinated with the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s office to reopen the local case, according to LBPD spokesperson Richard Mejia.
When Goldberg, now 78, was released from a medical detention center in Massachusetts, Long Beach police were there to arrest him. He’s since been extradited to Los Angeles County Jail where he’s being held without bail, records show.
He’s charged with nine counts of lewd acts with a child under 14.
Michelle Winterstein, whose nonprofit organization For The Child helped treat some of the children authorities say Goldberg abused, said she was surprised to hear about his release and his arrest.
“I appreciate Long Beach PD, that they were there and that they didn’t let this drop,” she said.
Now, she said, her mind is on the victims, some of whom will likely be glad to hear Goldberg is facing more charges and others who may be forced to relive memories they’d rather leave behind.