Lipscomb accuser contacted MPD in 2010

The swirl of allegations surrounding former city housing and community development director Robert Lipscomb grew Tuesday, with eight more men making accusations — and the revelation that the original complainant first reached out to Memphis police in 2010.

The 26-year-old man behind the original complaint said Tuesday in a telephone interview from Seattle that officers didn’t take his complaint seriously in 2010.

“They swept it under the rug,’’ he said. The Commercial Appeal is not identifying the man because he alleges to be a victim of sexual assault.

The man said he gave a statement to a Memphis Police Department investigator in an office in Central Station on South Main, alleging Lipscomb had assaulted him four years

earlier, when he was 16.

“I made the complaint that he raped me, that he forced my head into his lap,’’ he said.

“They did not take me seriously. He nonchalantly took notes and he even took the wrong notes. I told him Mr. Lipscomb gave me $200. And he wrote down that Mr. Lipscomb gave me $60 because he wasn’t listening.’’

According to the man, Lipscomb assaulted him on multiple occasions.

“After the first two times, after he forced my head into his lap, you know, it just became something that I was routinely accustomed to doing. I was confused. I was homeless. I was distraught. I didn’t know what to do. I became angry and bitter. I was devastated. My manhood was desecrated. I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t know who to tell this to. And when I did decide to come out four years later, you see what happened? They swept it under the rug.’’

City chief administrative officer Jack Sammons said Tuesday the city had received nine accusations of sexual misconduct beginning with the original complainant whose allegations were made public Sunday night, and many more accusations from people who didn’t give their names or hung up.

The accusations all came — as far as he knew — from males who were juveniles at the time of the alleged incidents, and had a “high level of consistency.” Sammons said he sat in on a few of the calls, and their details were “simply disgusting.”

No charges have been filed against Lipscomb and, through his attorney Ricky Wilkins, he has denied any improper relationship with anyone.

In the affidavit for a warrant used to search Lipscomb’s house, the original complainant said Lipscomb picked him up as he was walking home from a school track meet.

“Lipscomb parked the SUV on a side street and then Lipscomb grabbed him by the back of his neck” and forced him to perform a sex act, the affidavit claims. Lipscomb then gave him $60 and told him to call him, the complainant said according to the affidavit.

Acting the next day, an investigator could only find a family member, who said she would attempt to find him. The investigator learned that the complainant often slept at Memphis Union Mission, but he could not be found.

Countering that assertion, the man, who says he was born and raised in Memphis, said he was indeed homeless but police knew where to find him.

“If they wanted to get into contact with me, I told them where I hung out at and where my mom stayed at,’’ he said.

The man contacted MPD again last month, the affidavit said. That’s when investigators met him in Washington, to follow up on the 2010 complaint.

The affidavit says Lipscomb met with investigators Sunday, and Lipscomb said he had maintained records between himself and the complainant, the last contact being a February 2015 email. A search warrant said officers seized a computer, iPad, documents and a recording device from Lipscomb’s home Monday.

Mayor A C Wharton said Tuesday that he was unaware of the man’s allegations until he contacted the city last month. As for why the city was never able to follow through on the original 2010 complaint, Wharton said “that’s part of the investigation.”

Wharton, who is seeking re-election in a heated campaign, had been in office more than three months when the 2010 complaint was made.

Larry Godwin, who was police director in 2010, said Tuesday he has “no recollection of any complaints coming through the Memphis Police Department against Robert Lipscomb” and said any such complaint would have “gone through our Inspectional Services Bureau (internal affairs).”

The complainant in Seattle countered wide speculation that political motives are behind his coming forward now. He said he called City Hall last week threatening to file a lawsuit because he is still upset.

“I didn’t even know there was an election race until I started looking things up in Memphis …A C Wharton and Toney Armstrong took me so serious we talked Monday and they was here Thursday. They broke their ass and broke their back to get here. Toney Armstrong himself took my interview.’’

Lipscomb resigned from his job as director of the city’s Housing and Community Development department late Monday, a day after he was suspended without pay. Sammons said Wharton will ask Memphis Housing Authority to terminate Lipscomb’s contract.

Lipscomb also took leave from LeMoyneOwen College’s board of trustees, of which he was the chairman, according to a Tuesday morning news release from the school.

I didn’t even know there was an election race until I started looking things up in Memphis … AC Wharton and Toney Armstrong took me so serious we talked Monday and they was here Thursday.”

Complainant accusing Robert Lipscomb of sexual assault