Council Candidate confronts domestic incident rumors

Erica Richardson Standing up to Abuse

By Roxanne Jones

Editor New London Speaks (newlondonspeaks.com)

Erica Richardson, a Democratic candidate for New London City Council, seems like a quiet, unassuming woman at first glance. The soft-spoken single mother of six-year-old Nathaniel gives you the impression that she’d rather not cause a scene.

So it was surprising to see Richardson’s name turn up recently in local blogs citing “unnamed sources” claiming that she had been involved in a domestic dispute with her son’s estranged father. And now Richardson, who turns out to be anything but shy, wants to set the record straight.

“Do not mistake my kindness for stupidity,” said Richardson, who has a degree in Paralegal Studies from Roger Williams University. “Some people think that my being nice means that you can take advantage of me. That’s a mistake.”

What’s really going on here? We caught up with the candidate at a recent New London Kiwanis Club dinner where Richardson was named President Elect and commended for her work with the group. Here’s what she had to say:

“I was scared and I needed protection for myself and my son,” Richardson said of the day in late August when she called police to her Jefferson Avenue home after she and Nate’s estranged father, Myles Houston, had an argument over how to discipline her son. Nate is a special needs child and has been diagnosed with acute ADHD. For Richardson, that means patience, understanding and love are the best ways to guide her son. His father disagreed, she said.

“We were having an argument and it was escalating, I called 911 for help. That’s what we are supposed to do, the police are here to protect and serve all of us,” she said. When police arrived at her home, Houston was arrested and held over for arraignment. Erica, the homeowner, was not arrested or removed from her home but was issued a summons to appear in court today on a disorderly conduct complaint. Her case was dismissed.

Richardson did not want to become a national statistic. Every nine seconds in the U.S. a woman is assaulted or beaten. And every day in this nation, more than three women are murdered by their husbands or boyfriends.

Even so, minor domestic incidents such as Richardson’s rarely make it into police logs or the media. But in politics today, right or wrong, the sordid details of a candidate’s personal life are too often considered fair game for the press. So it’s no surprise that the incident somehow got out to the public.

According to Richardson, she had invited Houston to visit from Florida where he lives to help him get to know Nathaniel. The parents had ended their relationship well before the baby was born and Houston had only seen his son twice in six years. Richardson wanted to try and help them establish a relationship. “Fathers are important in a child’s life and I didn’t want to allow grownup problems to stop Nate from getting to know his dad. I was wary of the visit but I wanted to try,” she said.

Richardson, who was 36-years-old when she had “Natie,” as she lovingly calls her boy, never envisioned being a single mother. “I was one of those women who dreamed of the perfect life, a Brady Bunch life with a loving husband and lots of children but that didn’t happen for me.”

She met Nathaniel’s father in Florida where she had moved to attend law school and work at her uncle’s law firm. Her love for the law and public service was cemented when she worked as a Legislative Assistant and Congressional aide for former Congressman Sam Gejdenson.

“Myles was a mortgage broker at the time, professional, smart and quite charming. Our firm did a lot of business with his clients and I just fell for him. He seemed the perfect gentleman,” she recalled.

However, after dating for months the relationship turned. “He wasn’t the man I thought, people started warning me about his past and I found out some things that made me nervous,” said Richardson.  She decided to end the relationship and refocus on her dream of becoming a lawyer. Then weeks after the split, she learned that she was pregnant.

 “It wasn’t a perfect circumstance for me. A good Catholic girl pregnant and not married but abortion was out of the question for me,” she said. “I was a grown woman and I decided that I’d have to have the courage to raise my son on my own without the perfect family I’d planned.”

The domestic incident has been humiliating for Richardson, who said that she has never had anything other than positive interactions with the police.  She has served on the New London Police Community Relations Committee and even completed the Police Department Citizen’s Police Academy. But, if elected, she believes this experience will help her be a stronger councilwoman and advocate for all residents.

“Women need to stop taking this type of abuse. We have to demand respect. I’m strong, independent and determined. I’ve faced a lot of adversity in my life and always met it head-on,” said Richardson. “I’ve learned from this experience to be more assertive and not be pushed around, especially when I’m doing the right thing. I’ve learned to stand my ground. And I will do that for the City of New London if I’m elected.”

And she’s hoping voters will stand with her on November 5th.

*Roxanne Jones is NL resident. CNN columnist, author and founding editor of ESPN Magazine. Her new website: newlondonspeaks.com launches this week.