MEMPHIS, TN— One month after a Memphis mother accused a little league football coach of molesting her two boys there is still no word from Memphis Police about any charges in the case. Lakeshia Richmond didn't just accuse Coach Tony Massey, she beat him with a baseball bat so badly he was in the MED for weeks.
The Memphis Child Advocacy Center says it can take months to investigate a child sex abuse case because more than a dozen law enforcement agencies are involved. Not only that but if there are multiple victims that means more interviews and collecting evidence.
"I don't think you can be charged right away because it is a painstaking process,” said a spokeswoman for the Memphis Child Advocacy Center, Beryl Wight. "Reviewing the police report to the forensic interview, all of that is just a very standardized and perfected procedure."
It's a complicated procedure too. Local, state, and federal agencies are involved. The Memphis Child Advocacy Center says interviewing young victims is especially difficult.
"Children usually aren't the ones who make up stories, adults tend to do it. It's pretty rare for a child to make up a story of child sexual abuse,” said Wight. “The forensic interview process that happens is also put in place to get to the bottom of the child's story. This is much better at both protecting the children of our community and also the accused to make sure that we get to the bottom of the truth."
The truth is far from being exposed in the case involving Richmond's sons and their coach. It's also a little more complicated for this South Memphis mother. She took the law into her own hands, picked up a bat, and nearly killed the coach.
“I didn't intend to do whatever I did to him. I apologize but I don't apologize to what happened to my kids. This is outrageous. I don't know what's going on and now my kids are suffering, they kind of scared to go asleep at night,” Lakeshia Richmond told ABC24 News on August 19, one day after she posted bond for assaulting the coach.
The coach spent 15 days in the hospital. ABC24 News went to see how he was doing last week but we weren't welcome. When we asked the coach’s grandmother Lula Massey, his whereabouts this is what she told us, “I don't want to say nothin'! Don't say nothin' to me!"
There is no doubt everyone is hurt one way or another when there are accusations of child sex abuse. After the Penn State scandal child advocacy groups around the country hope people will learn how to identify the abuse, report it, and let justice take its course.
Memphis Police are not saying if more victims have come forward. Richmond is expected to appear in court with an attorney to face assault charges on Tuesday September 18.
