Police Looking For Additional Victims After Tulsa Man Charged With Lewd Molestation

A Tulsa man is charged with molesting two young girls under the age of 13, and police say there could be more victims.

Tulsa Police said Luther Richardson admitted he's been accused of molestation before, once in 1984 and another time in 2006.

Arrest Affidavit: 

The arrest affidavit says 72-year-old Richardson molested the two girls for around three years. Both victims described several similar incidents where Richardson would touch them and force them to touch him. It says he would make comments about how he wanted them to feel like a "young lady" and get some "practice" for when they got a boyfriend. He also threatened them that if they told anyone, he would get them taken away from their families.

Q&A with TPD:

Q: This was someone these kids knew well. Is this common with children who are sexually abused?

A: "So we call that grooming, where they start with, like, a piece of candy, or they start being, you know, being friendly and talking, and they they're basically trying to test the waters to see how far they can take it before the child will say something to someone, or if the child will just let it occur."

Q: Why do you believe there are more victims?

A: "When we were interviewing him at the scene, he volunteered information about previously being accused of molesting children and nothing coming of it. So when we got the police report here at the child crisis unit, we started to reach out to those previous victims, and we had our current victims interviewed, and the disclosures between the two were very similar. So we feel like, because he started in the 80s, and he's still doing it in 2024 that he's probably done it to maybe several other people in between those times, and they just haven't come forward."

Q: What is your advice to parents?

A: "The thing that we tell parents the most is to trust your gut, to trust your instinct if you feel like something's off, or you think that it's strange, that this behavior is strange, or maybe somebody's overly friendly, just to trust your gut and go with it. If you don't feel like it's safe to leave your child with somebody, or safe to have your child around somebody, don't do it. I know that sometimes people get in situations where they have no other choice, but we just ask you to, you know, if your gut is telling you that something's not right, you should trust it."

Q: What do you need from the public?

A: "We would like anybody if they've had contact with this individual, or if they were molested by this individual, no matter how long ago it is, or any information that they just want to give us. If they know something about him previously to contact us. There's our Facebook page where we put our detective's email address. You could also call the non-emergency number and just have a police officer come and make a report if you want to. Even if the statute limitations is up on your case, we would still like to talk to you and maybe become a witness in ours.