ATLANTA — A local police sergeant accused of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old girl while he was on duty has been fired.
Channel 2 investigative reporter Nicole Carr confronted Sgt. Richard Gooddine at police headquarters on Wednesday morning moments after his termination.
Carr and her photographer got there just in time to see Gooddine walking out of an elevator with his termination papers in hand.
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“Did you touch that girl? Anything her mother say is true?” Carr asked Gooddine as he walked out the Police Department building. The now-former officer didn’t answer.
Gooddine is the center of a Georgia Bureau of Investigation sexual assault investigation. A 15-year-old girl told investigators he molested her Sunday night into Monday morning, after taking her into custody for a curfew violation.
"She just broke down. She was crying. She was just so scared and terrified," the victim's mother told Channel 2 investigative reporter Mark Winne earlier this week. "I immediately brought my daughter to the hospital."
“The officer involved actually followed them to this hospital location, walked inside this emergency department and stalked the halls of the emergency (department) looking for the victim,” family attorney Thomas Reynolds said. “I have seen video of the officer having to be escorted out of the emergency room facility by the hospital staff.”
Gooddine remained defiant Wednesday as Carr and our photographer asked him about the allegations against him.
Carr: Can you tell us what happened in there?
Gooddine: Stop following me.
Carr: Sure
Photographer: Can you say anything?
Gooddine: Stop following me.
Photographer: Do you want to Say anything about what happened?
Gooddine: Not guilty.
Photographer: I'm sorry?
Carr: What you'd say?
Gooddine: I'm not guilty
Carr: All right.
Gooddine: Just leave me alone.
In a statement, the East Point police chief noted Gooddine's violation of "multiple departmental policies and procedures" led to his termination Wednesday morning.
So far, Gooddine has not be charged with anything.
The GBI just got the case and it will turn its findings over to the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office, which will then decide whether or not to prosecute Gooddine.
Similar sexual assault allegations were brought against Gooddine in 2011.
The District Attorney’s Office said it chose not to prosecute that case in an effort to avoid the young victim having to relive the incident.
Cox Media Group
