Former youth football league president met teen rape victim when she ran out of gas, Loretto police chief says
LAWRENCE COUNTY, Tenn. (WKRN) — Lawrence County law enforcement revealed disturbing details about the investigation into a former youth football league president accused of raping a teenager.
The Loretto Police Department said it received information on Sunday, April 21 about a statutory rape involving a local man and a 14-year-old girl from Kentucky, so authorities spent the next three days investigating the tip with help from the District Attorney’s Office and Kentucky State Police.
According to officials, 43-year-old Jason William Cromwell was indicted by the Lawrence County Grand Jury on Wednesday, April 24 by for aggravated statutory rape. Two days later, law enforcement announced he had turned himself in.
Loretto Police Chief Bobby Joe Killen said Cromwell doesn’t have a history with his department. Cromwell, a married man with multiple children, was president of the Loretto Youth Football League at the time the accusations were made.
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“Biggest thing that bothered us, why we tried to expedite this whole situation to get it took care of, was the fact that he was with youth football,” Killen told News 2. “That’s being around a lot of young people, young children. I would not want my children to be playing youth football knowing that something like this happened, so we needed to put a stop to it as soon as we could.”
Killen said that’s why police expedited this investigation after receiving the tip in the department’s Facebook Messenger: “This tip kind of stuck out.”
According to Killen, the investigation shows Cromwell met the 14-year-old at random on Sunday. The chief added that the Kentucky teen had stolen her grandmother’s car and ran out of gas when she stopped at the Dollar General store, where Cromwell apparently offered to help her get gas.
“We found out that they went riding around afterwards, went down a road somewhere. She didn’t know where, just knew they left the Dollar General, turned left, and went riding around and ended up parking and started kissing some, then had [a] sexual relationship,” Killen explained.
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Once the indictments was handed out from the grand jury, the search began for Cromwell, with Killen saying his SUV was found abandoned at his workplace in Lawrenceburg. The SWAT team later cleared the building in an effort to find him.
“It was one of those cases that’s popped up that you want to put a stop to as quick as you can so it doesn’t happen again,” Killen said.
The chief told News 2 he was grateful for the community’s help on the case, adding that Cromwell turned himself in at the Lawrence County Sheriff’s Office on Friday, April 26.
“When something like this happens, you don’t know what to say. You know what your mind tells you you want to do, but you have to do it the right way,” Killen explained.
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The Loretto Police Department’s investigation into the rape is still ongoing. Meanwhile, the Loretto Youth Football League is conducting its own investigation.
The league’s new president shared the following statement with News 2:
It is our greatest priority that the players and cheerleaders in this league are safe and have a great experience. Although we do not know all the details of the past leadership, we do know that the main goal going forward will always be protecting the young people within this organization. At this time, we are conducting our own internal investigation to ensure everything was and is being conducted properly. We do not have any comment on the actions of our former League president, as that is an external event not related to this league. It is our goal and intention to conduct this league with the utmost professionalism and integrity as to be a place where young people can thrive and have success.
No additional details have been released about this case.
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