According to an agent for Homeland Security Investigations, the main investigative division of the Department of Homeland Security, a Texas tennis instructor who was the subject of a ProPublica and The Washington Post investigation last month is now facing a national child abuse sensor.
In a ProPublica and Post article, Ryan Richardson explained how, despite being suspended in early 2025 and later declared “permanently disqualified,” the U.S. Center for SafeSport, an oversight body, he continued to manager young girls for years at his Pharr, Texas, gym despite allegations of misconduct. SafeSport reported on its open administrative list that it had an intimate connection with a small, committed sexual misconduct involving a small, and engaged in physical misconduct and bullying.
Juan J. Flores Jr., a officer in a Homeland Security Investigations system that investigates child abuse in the Rio Grande Valley, informed ProPublica and The Post that he had started the investigation into Richardson in response to the report, which claimed a family and former players claimed he had a physical connection with a 16-year-old player starting in 2022 and that he groomed and physically abused people.
” I want to talk to everyone,” I said. I am aware that he is still a coach, Flores said.
Richardson did not respond to several emails asking for comments on the investigating from ProPublica and The Post, or to a request for comment on this account. Richardson stated to the local news website MyRGV that he “would never do anything to harm the physical or mental wellbeing of these powerful young women” when he was foremost suspended by Lone Star Region Volleyball, the firm overseeing tennis in Texas, in 2024.
The Department of Homeland Security’s spokesperson stated that while HSI was” a world leader in the fight against child abuse,” it was unable to” confirm or deny any continued investigations.”
Even though the girl was 16 years old, ProPublica and The Post published passages of Snap messages between Richardson and a former player. In those emails, Richardson and the girl exchanged their passion and anticipated their next meeting. When the child was 17 years old, Richardson wrote in a message in May 2023,” I don’t like that we are only intercourse right now, so I really would love to get past this high school Garbage when you are very much on your own.” The SafeSport investigation included the Snapchat messages.
Maggie Gutierrez, the former player’s mother, claims that she and Richardson were discovered in his darkened gym’s back room, which at the time had a twin mattress, in the summer of 2022. Richardson turned his back to her, according to Gutierrez, who appeared to be tying up the string on his pants. Richardson and Gutierrez’s daughter at the time, however, denied that anything inappropriate had occurred. ( ProPublica and The Post, which do not identify alleged victims of sexual abuse without their consent, refer to Gutierrez by her maiden name to omit her daughter, who declined to be interviewed. )
After her daughter’s college volleyball coach informed her that he believed Richardson and her daughter, then 18, were dating, Gutierrez called the police in both Pharr and McAllen in early 2024.
She claimed that because her daughter was a legal adult and did not want to speak to police, they decided to pursue the case.
ProPublica and The Post requested records from both jurisdictions, but the news organizations were able to obtain excerpts from the police report in McAllen by citing an exemption under state privacy laws. An officer described meeting with Gutierrez at the McAllen police station in the text.
The case would not be further investigated and closed because Gutierrez’s daughter was 18 years old, which according to Texas law is considered an adult and an age that gave her the right to consent.
The regional arm of USA Volleyball, Lone Star, which governs the sport, Gutierrez then relayed her concerns to the organization. Officials referred the matter to SafeSport, which launched an investigation.
Gutierrez told ProPublica and The Post that she spoke with the investigator for homeland security last week.
Flores stated that the investigation would also include examining the actions of both police departments that had declined to file charges against Richardson.
Pharr and McAllen police did not respond to requests for comment.
The first article on ProPublica: Homeland Security Opens Child Exploitation Probe Into Banned Texas Volleyball Coach.
