Homeland Security Opens Child Exploitation Probe Into Banned Texas Volleyball Coach

Federal investigators have opened a child exploitation probe into Ryan Richardson, a Texas volleyball coach who kept coaching teenage girls in Pharr even after being banned by the U.S. Center for SafeSport this past February. According to ProPublica, a Homeland Security Investigations supervisor said he launched the inquiry after ProPublica and The Washington Post detailed allegations that Richardson had a sexual relationship with a 16-year-old player starting in 2022 and emotionally and physically abused others. SafeSport's own findings cited an intimate relationship with a minor and sexual misconduct; Richardson has not responded to requests for comment, though he previously denied wrongdoing. The investigator says he also plans to examine why two local police departments declined to pursue the case.

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