Ex-sports star sentenced for sex crime

A former high school sports star who was to attend a community college on a basketball scholarship will spend at least four years in prison for molesting younger players.

Rikeya J. Crossley, 20, (pictured above in July 2005) pleaded guilty to one count of child molestation in a case that involved sexual contact with two girls ages 13 and 14 while Crossley was 17 and 18.

The girls were in middle school when they met Crossley and her friend, Denisha D. Whitehead, now 20, through a basketball tournament in summer 2006.

Whitehead, who played basketball with Crossley at Rogers High School, was sentenced last month to 12 months in jail with credit for 243 days served after pleading guilty to second-degree rape of a child.

Crossley was arrested in August 2007, just before she was to begin classes at Walla Walla Community College.

“There are times in my court when I wish I had a magic wand to wave to make it so things like this never happened,” Spokane County Superior Court Judge Maryann Moreno said today.

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