What would you do if your eight and nine-year-old sons claimed they were sexually molested by their football coach? If you’re Lakeshia Richmond then you beat the coach with a baseball bat.
According to the Huffington Post and ABC24:
Lakeshia Richmond, of Memphis, spent a few days in jail for attacking Tony Massey, whom she claims touched her 8- and 9-year-old sons inappropriately, according to WREG-TV.
“I didn’t intend to do whatever I did to him,” Richmond told the station. “I apologize, but I don’t apologize for what happened to my kids.”
She says it’s normal for her kids and their teammates to spend the night at one of the coach’s house but she became concerned when the head coach called her Saturday for a meeting with “Coach Red”. It’s only then that she said her children told her what happened.
“My 8 year old said he wanted to play hide and seek and that he (Coach Red) grabbed my 9 year old’s hand and put it on the coach’s private part and my 9 year old said, ‘no that’s bad, that’s nasty’ and the coach said no this is what college people do,” said Richmond.
On her way to the meeting Richmond saw Coach Red and couldn’t hold back.
“He was running away,” said Richmond. “I didn’t say anything to him I just blinked out. When I saw him, I saw my kids being hurt, that’s it.”
Neighbors say Richmond chased the coach down the street to a neighbor’s carport and then started beating him with a bat.
“There was blood splattered all over my carport,” said a neighbor Jackie Woods. “She beat his head open, split his head.”
Richmond says she did call police to report the coach but everything happened so fast.
“I was hoping the police made it to him before I did,” said Richmond. “He was saying he didn’t do it and he was sorry. If you didn’t do it why are you saying you’re sorry? What are you sorry for?”
The coach was in critical condition [last] Saturday and upgraded to serious condition [last] Monday. Richmond faces an aggravated assault charge, while police say they’re investigating her allegations against Massey.
WREG talked to the coach’s family and they were upset about the beating.
“What if they had killed him,” said Lula Massey, the victim’s grandmother.
She believes Richmond should have let police investigate the claims. Massey showed me search warrants of her grandson’s apartment from Saturday night. Police signed off that they found no physical evidence.
“He is [in his 30’s], I have never seen him touch a child inappropriately or heard of him touching a child inappropriately,” she said.
Massey just wants justice for her grandson against a vigilante mother who took justice into her own hands.
“If [the allegations are] true, I hate it, but if it’s not, I want these people to pay for beating up my grandson like they did,” said Massey.
“That’s not true cause my son is with children every weekend,” the victim’s mother told WLBT. “He has nieces, nephews…that’s not true.”
In her mugshot, Lakeshia is smiling but she may be convicted of aggravated assault and that’s nothing to smile about. If convicted, the Shelby County District Attorney’s Office says she could serve up to 15 years in prison, leaving her 4 children alone. Supporters have set up a legal fund for her at Bank of America called “Benefit Account for Lakeshia Richmond.” ABC24 says eight other children have come forward with the same allegations.
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