Where Does the Truth About the McDonald’s Daddy Lie?

"Ya'll need to ease up on homey...he just a daddy trying' to get by!"

What you see here is one of thousands, likely one of tens of thousands, of comments made in the last week concerning the fate of Chris Louis, a 24-year-old Augusta man whose self-inflicted controversy turned him into a classic example of just what Andy Warhol meant when he said "In the future, everyone will be famous for 15 minutes."

You may know the story by now, but in case you missed it...

On Saturday, March 22nd, Louis was charged with deprivation of a minor when he was reported for leaving his three children, ages 10, 6, and 1, unsupervised at a McDonald's playground on Washington Road, not far from the I-20 interchange.

The children were left for at least 90 minutes, and when Louis was finally located by authorities, he claimed he had been at a job interview the whole time, and had no other choice but to leave the children at the playground while he was seeking desperately-needed employment.

Quite the heart-tugger, huh?

When my buddy Greg Rickabaugh reported the story, as told by Louis and documented in police reports, the story exploded. Between his articles in The Jail Report and The Augusta Press, the story was seen, shared, re-told, plagiarized, and dramatized well over a million times.

I counted over 35 "rehashes" of the story. They appeared everywhere from CNN to The Daily Mail to “The Clay and Buck Show” - syndicated in Augusta on my own radio station. Clay and Buck spent over an hour talking about the situation, and they, like most everyone else, took a very sympathetic approach.

One of the countless news consumers touched by the tale was former NFL superstar Antonio Brown, perhaps one of the greatest, and infamously troubled, wide receivers to ever play the game. To his credit, Brown seemed genuinely concerned about the plight of the young man and his family and directed the attention of his 20 million social media followers to a GoFundMe page set up to benefit Louis and his family. The goal - to help them "get on the right track." He kicked in $1084 himself, and many others (including ESPN/ABC football analyst Kirk Herbstreit with $1000) joined in at different levels.

In no time that account collected over $80,000.

And then (in my best Paul Harvey voice), we heard "the rest of the story."

Prompted by the international attention and interest in the heartbreaking saga of Chris Louis, officials with the Richmond County Sheriff's Office decided a deeper dive was needed into the case against the man and the story he shared to explain his troublesome behavior that fateful day.

After studying surveillance footage from the McDonald's property, the investigating deputy’s body-cam footage, and after interviewing a number of witnesses connected to the events of that day, it was determined that Louis's 90-minute job interview had taken approximately ten minutes, and that the location of that business, the West Bank Inn, was directly next door to the McDonald’s. Again – directly next door.

So where was Louis while his three children were left unattended for 90 minutes? When confronted, he told investigators that he was also running an errand to an apartment complex less than half a mile away. He did not elaborate on the urgency/purpose of that errand, merely the need to drop off a backpack. The backpack, oddly, was still in his possession when he did show up at McDonald’s after being summoned by family members contacted by police.

The cops certainly don't seem to buy the convoluted explanation, and for good reason. It is ridiculous.

What was once a review to consider withdrawing charges altogether quickly became an iron clad confirmation of the original case, with perhaps an escalation in order. Not only did Louis likely commit the crime with which he was charged, it appears he lied to investigators once questioned.

Certainly, he should not profit from his alleged criminal behavior and hideous choices made that day.

As this new information became available, Antonio Brown has posted a statement calling for a complete review of the facts before turning any of the collected funds over to Louis or his family. He also urged anyone who wishes to rescind their donations do so through the fundraising website.

It is a conflict genuinely concerned and generous people often deal with. How does one help innocent children in need when those charged with their day-to-day well-being are demonstrably incapable of managing financial assistance? Here's to hoping DFACS or other state agents can identify someone in the lives of these three children capable of managing their affairs and can provide the state relief funds available to such minors in need.

As for Chris Louis, he deserves 80k in his pocket far less than the swift boot in the fanny he earned for abandoning his three children in such a manner. They are safe only by the grace of God and the kindness of strangers. I would be willing to help him out with funding a vasectomy, though. That would be charity money well invested.