Steubenville rape convict Ma'Lik Richmond released

STEUBENVILLE, Ohio - A television station reports that Ma’Lik Richmond, a former eastern Ohio high school football player, has been released from a juvenile detention center less than a year after his conviction for raping a 16-year-old girl following an alcohol-fueled party.

WTOV-TV in Steubenville reports that Richmond has been released. His attorney, Walter Madison, says in a statement that the youth is a "better, stronger person," and requests privacy. Messages left Monday for Madison seeking further information weren't immediately returned.

Richmond was sentenced to one year in March 2013. A judge convicted him and fellow Steubenville High School student athlete Trent Mays of raping the West Virginia girl in August 2012. Mays was also convicted of using his phone to take a picture of the girl naked. He was sentenced to two years. 

Jefferson County Judge Thomas Lipps last August gave Richmond Ohio's second-toughest sex offender classification, the same as Mays had received. Richmond must register as a sex offender every six months for 20 years. However, he can request to have the classification removed later based on rehabilitation history, and his name won't be included on publicly accessible websites. Richmond was 16 at the time of the rape. 

Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine convened a grand jury last year to look into possible related crimes, resulting in charges against six people. The Steubenville school district's former technology director faces a late February trial on charges he misled investigators. He and other school officials charged have pleaded not guilty.