{"id":1775,"date":"2026-05-12T09:51:54","date_gmt":"2026-05-12T09:51:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/login9ja.com\/global\/chase-matthews-bassist-carsen-richards-charged-with-child-sex-crimes-after-being-arrested-at-kentucky-festival\/"},"modified":"2026-05-12T09:51:54","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T09:51:54","slug":"chase-matthews-bassist-carsen-richards-charged-with-child-sex-crimes-after-being-arrested-at-kentucky-festival","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/login9ja.com\/global\/chase-matthews-bassist-carsen-richards-charged-with-child-sex-crimes-after-being-arrested-at-kentucky-festival\/","title":{"rendered":"Chase Matthew&#8217;s bassist Carsen Richards charged with child sex crimes after being arrested at Kentucky festival"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/login9ja.com\/global\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2026\/05\/127529146.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Country singer Chase Matthew\u2019s bassist has been charged with child sex crimes after being arrested at a Kentucky festival.<\/p>\n<p>Carsen Richards, 22, was arrested Saturday and is accused of sexually abusing an autistic boy on two occasions in 2020 and 2022 when they were ages 12 and 14, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lex18.com\/news\/covering-kentucky\/tn-man-arrested-on-charges-involving-autistic-minor-after-performance-at-owensboro-music-festival\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" data-nyp-affiliate=\"true\">LEX18 reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tiktok.com\/@bmine000\/video\/7638256413353020703\">Footage shared on TikTok<\/a> showed Richards being surrounded by cops after he had performed at the BBQ &amp; Barrels event in Owensboro, Kentucky.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption>Carsen Richards, who performed as a bassist for country singer Chase Matthew, performing at the iHeartCountry Festival on May 2. <span class=\"credit\">Getty Images for iHeartRadio<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Cops waited until the Tennessee-born guitarist had left the stage before arresting him amid fears he could be armed.<\/p>\n<p>Richards has since been charged with sodomy and incest involving a person under 18 by a person three or more years or older, and faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"single__inline-module aligncenter wp-block-nypost-editor-primary-tag\">\n<\/aside>\n<p>The boy\u2019s mom reported the alleged abuse to Winchester cops in November last year and the child confirmed the claims during a police interview the following month. <\/p>\n<p>Richards was confronted by the woman outside his Hendersonville apartment, on Feb. 12, according to court docs <a href=\"https:\/\/www.owensborotimes.com\/news\/2026\/05\/new-court-records-show-chase-matthew-band-member-accused-of-abusing-12-year-old\/\">seen by the Owensboro Times.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere is nothing more I have regretted in my life,\u201d he reportedly told her before saying \u201cI made an awful mistake.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>His alleged victim has Level 1 autism \u2014 the lowest support level, <a href=\"https:\/\/iris.peabody.vanderbilt.edu\/module\/asd1\/cresource\/q1\/p03\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" data-nyp-affiliate=\"true\">according to Vanderbilt University<\/a>.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption>Richards has since been charged with child sex crimes.  <span class=\"credit\">Daviess County Detention Center<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Matthew, known for his breakout hit \u201cLove You Again,\u201d has since fired Richards.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe situation has honestly been one of the most shocking and heartbreaking things I have ever experienced,\u201d the 28-year-old singer-songwriter <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/DYNcseSoAIv\/?utm_source=ig_embed\">wrote on Instagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen I first heard the allegations, I was sick to my stomach. I would never associate myself with a person I think could even be remotely capable of something like this, much less hire them to be on my team.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption>Chase Matthew, pictured performing onstage during the 2026 iHeartCountry Festival, has since spoken out about the claims.  <span class=\"credit\">Getty Images for iHeartRadio<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cThe reality is, you don\u2019t always know what someone may be doing outside of your workplace, and nothing would have made me believe this was a possibility.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Matthew said, \u201cI do not support or tolerate behavior of this kind whatsoever.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI am truly disturbed and disgusted by the details of these allegations. My heart breaks for anyone affected.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><script async src=\"\/\/www.tiktok.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/pagesix.com\/2026\/05\/12\/celebrity-news\/chase-matthews-bassist-carsen-richards-charged-with-child-sex-crimes-after-being-arrested-at-kentucky-festival\/\" target=\"_blank\">Source link<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Country singer Chase Matthew\u2019s bassist has been charged with child sex crimes after being arrested<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1776,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1775","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/login9ja.com\/global\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/127529146.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/login9ja.com\/global\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1775","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/login9ja.com\/global\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/login9ja.com\/global\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/login9ja.com\/global\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/login9ja.com\/global\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1775"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/login9ja.com\/global\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1775\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/login9ja.com\/global\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1776"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/login9ja.com\/global\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1775"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/login9ja.com\/global\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1775"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/login9ja.com\/global\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1775"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}