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Richard Christopher Parker is currently incarcerated at Northern Nevada Correctional Center in Carson City, serving a prison sentence for a felony conviction that objective evidence now calls into serious question.

Richard was convicted of Duty to Stop at Scene of Crash Involving Death or Personal Injury (NRS 484E.010). The felony charge depended on an allegation that the other person involved was injured.

But the medical records document no accident-related injury.

Even more troubling, the other person involved was a former Nevada Highway Patrol trooper. In June 2025, Richard's wife obtained and personally reviewed the official NHP body-camera footage from the investigation.

The footage captures the responding NHP officer directing the former trooper to change his statement regarding whether he was injured. The video also records interactions concerning their shared law-enforcement and military backgrounds.

This is not based on rumor or secondhand information. Richard's wife submitted a notarized affidavit documenting what she personally witnessed on the bodycam as part of Richard's October 2025 Petition for Writ of Habeas Corpus.

The bodycam and medical records raise a simple but serious question:

If the accident did not cause an injury, why is Richard serving a felony sentence for an offense based on an accident involving personal injury?

Richard Tried to Fight the Felony

Richard wanted to take his case to trial. Shortly before trial, however, he says his attorney told him that resolving the case as a misdemeanor was "no longer an option" because "the law changed." Relying on that legal advice, Richard reluctantly accepted a felony plea agreement of approximately 2½ to 6 years. 

At sentencing, the court instead imposed 5 to 12 years.

Richard immediately requested an appeal, but it was not filed within the required 30-day period. When his wife followed up with the Public Defender's Office in August 2023, the deadline had already passed. The failure was reportedly attributed to a computer-related issue within the office.

Then another major problem surfaced:  Richard's 5-to-12-year sentence was illegal.  The error was ultimately corrected in 2025—but only after an incarcerated law clerk, not one of Richard's attorneys, brought the problem to his attention.

We're Asking the District Attorney to Look at the Evidence

Richard is not asking to escape responsibility for his actions. He is asking to be held accountable for the offense the evidence actually supports.

We are calling on the Washoe County District Attorney's Office to review:

• the complete NHP bodycam footage;
• the medical records documenting no accident-related injury;
• the circumstances surrounding the injury allegation and felony charge; and
   the serious failures that prevented Richard from receiving meaningful review of his case.

If the evidence does not establish the injury required for the felony offense, we ask the    Washoe County District Attorney's Office to take appropriate legal action to dismiss    or correct the felony conviction and recognize the offense actually supported by the evidence.

A person's past cannot replace proof. A former law-enforcement officer should not receive preferential treatment because of the badge he once carried. And no one should remain imprisoned for a felony when objective evidence does not support an essential element of that felony.

Please sign and share this petition to demand that the Washoe County District Attorney's Office review the evidence in Richard Christopher Parker's case.

Richard isn't asking for special treatment.

He's asking for equal justice—and for the evidence to finally be heard.

 

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