A youth track coach in Miami-Dade has been charged with rape and molestation of 2 girls
The founder and head coach of a successful youth track and field program sits in jail after two sisters said he molested them, the younger sister at 15 several years after he raped the older sister when she was 14.
Miami Gardens Xpress track club founder Darius Lawshea, 45, remains in Miami-Dade County Jail after he turned himself in Sunday to Miami Gardens police.
On Monday, Lawshea was granted $15,000 bond on the two counts of lewd and lascivious molestation of a child, aged 12 to 16 (the charges related to the younger sister), but no bond on the three counts of sexual battery (the allegations of the older sister).
This investigation, which began last November, wasn’t the first time parents showed up at Miami Gardens Police Department to talk about Lawshea, according to one of the arrest reports.
Concerns in 2012
In June 2012, the report said, a mother came to police because “she felt the communication between her daughter and [Lawshea] was flirtatious and feared for her daughter’s safety.”
The daughter was 14 years old.
The report said the investigation was closed for insufficient evidence. But it also said, “because of the nature of the complaints received and statements obtained from members of the athletic programs, there was concern because the subject behavior appears to be improper for a person in his position of authority as a young female’s coach or other juveniles.”
The next year, Lawshea incorporated Miami Gardens Xpress Track Club and registered it with the state of Florida as a nonprofit. Despite the name, the club has no official affiliation with the city of Miami Gardens.
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A family friend and coach in 2018
A teenager and her mother came to Miami Gardens police last November about Lawshea, also known as “Coach D.” The mother knew him as a track coach and family friend.
The girl said Lawshea dropped by their house during the 2018 summer when she was 14 and tried to get into her bathroom as she was coming out of the shower. She said she got into her bedroom and locked the door.
Lawshea spent part of July 4, 2019 at the house. The girl said he got her alone in her bedroom and asked her if she’d ever had a threesome and offered her $200 for sex. Though she refused the offer, she said, Lawshea got her in a rear bear hug that allowed him to grind against her posterior.
Later that month, she said Lawshea dropped in again when she was alone at home and tried to kiss her on the mouth and breast.
The report says the mother had video of Lawshea going into the house when her daughter was home alone. Once inside the house, the video allegedly shows, Lawshea going into the daughter’s bedroom while she locked herself in the bathroom.
The daughter didn’t tell her mother, the report said, but she told her then-boyfriend when she’d FaceTime him while Lawshea was in the house. The boyfriend went to his girlfriend’s mother with all the allegations and repeated them to Miami Gardens police this August.
Lawshea, the arrest report said, “stated that he is known to be too friendly with his kids (young ladies he has trained in his track program).” He admitted dropping in on the girl “to check on her.” Also, he said, he’d ask about boyfriends and any possible drug use because “he thought [the girl] was going down a bad path.”
But, the report said, he never discussed these worries with her mother. The mother told investigators she remembered her older daughter said Lawshea tried to pick her up and carry her into his bedroom once.
Ten Years After
The older daughter, now in her 20s, got called by Miami Gardens police in September. When they asked about the attempted lift-and-carry in 2010 when she was 14, she told them that much more happened back then.
According to an arrest report, the woman said she was running track for a Lawshea-coached team. After coming back late from a meet in Orlando, there would be team meeting early the next morning, so she stayed at Lawshea’s house. She said he forced cunnilingus and vaginal sex on her. She described Lawshea’s apartment as well as his penis.
She also said twice on the way home from track practice, he pulled his blue Ford and raped her in the car.
That arrest report says the older sister didn’t come forward in 2010 because “she was fearful because Mr. Lawshea was loved by everyone in the community and she didn’t want to get into trouble.”
But “when she heard that Mr. Lawshea had sexually molested her little sister, she knew it was important to finally speak up.”
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