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It's difficult to figure out who should be blamed in the messy matter involving accusations that a Hall of Fame coach hit an autistic child and at the Richland Public Library.
This much we now know is true: The incident didn't happen the way the young boy's caregiver claimed. And Frank Teverbaugh's name has been cleared after unnecessarily being tainted while the assault case against him progressed.
All it took was a video. Teverbaugh was cleared and the charges were dropped.
But why did it take so long for anyone to procure -- or provide -- surveillance video from the newly constructed $17.5 million library?
That's anyone's guess, and the finger-pointing continues.
Maybe we watch too much television, but one of the first things to appear on television news programs following a crime is surveillance video of the incident.
Whether the FBI is looking for a bank robber or a car narrowly missing a child as it crashes into the side of a convenience store in Sunnyside, video plays over and over in front of us.
And it's not only television. Thanks to the internet, the images appearing on the 24-hour news channels are usually available on demand via our computers. The Herald's website was the first place the public could get a look at the library video.
Teverbaugh's attorney John Jensen said the coach and his wife asked about the library's state-of-the-art video cameras, but were told the system was not working.
There is some lingering confusion about exactly whom they asked. Regardless, did anyone bother to check?
It wasn't until Jensen filed a public records request for the video footage with the city of Richland that justice was served.
Jensen's request was an awakening for the city attorney's office: "We became aware of it when Mr. Jensen requested a videotape of it," said Tami Bunker, a legal assistant there. "We didn't know there was something for us to ask for."
Really? We pretty much assume that 80 percent of our waking moments outside our homes will be caught in bits and pieces on surveillance cameras.
Many businesses use them to deter theft -- or at least have a record of it. Others use it for the safety and security of their employees. A web cam could be lurking anywhere, watching the happenings in a bird's nest or monitoring driving conditions on a mountain pass.
Somebody with the city -- be it police, library staff or municipal attorney -- should have asked the question about the video back in August when the alleged incident occurred.
It would have saved Teverbaugh a lot of heartache and taken the black cloud of suspicion off his shoulders. We hope he can quickly put the incident behind him.
We're confident that participants and observers learned from the incident. Always check for surveillance video.
Maybe if Richland officials had only watched more television, it wouldn't have been such a hard-won lesson.
