Ohio adoptive father accused of prostituting 10-year-old son
(CBS/AP) TROY, Ohio - Authorities say an adoptive father has been charged with raping three boys in his care and hiring a 10-year-old out for sex. He and two men remained jailed Thursday on rape charges.
Federal and local law enforcement officials said they're widening the investigation into child sexual exploitation allegations against the father, who worked out of his home as an insurance claims adjuster. His name is being withheld by The Associated Press to protect the children's identities.
Troy police said they impounded the father's truck and seized four laptops, a video camera and two wooden paddles from the home.
School officials said the man had recently withdrawn three adopted children from school, saying he would home school them.
A neighbor said he had no idea anything might be going on in their home. "You don't know what goes on inside people's home," said Ed Rogers. "I'll never look at that house the same way again. I'll just look at it with sickness."
The man at the center of the investigation is longtime Troy resident who had been involved in a local youth basketball program. Troy police Capt. Chris Anderson said so far police haven't found any signs of inappropriate behavior with other children.
Police also said they had hadn't found any records of past criminal charges against the man. He had adopted three children, including a 9-year-old girl, and was in the processing of adopting the fourth who lived with him. The children came from Texas, where state officials said Thursday they have been reviewing their records but had found nothing out of the ordinary or outside of procedures, which include background checks and parental training.
"We're sick about the results, but it's not that the process was not followed," said Patrick Crimmins, spokesman for the Texas family services agency. "This appears to be a tragic but isolated incident."
An undercover detective talked online with the adoptive father, who said he would arrange sex with a 10-year-old boy, Troy police said. He had been led to the adoptive father by another man who had posted a Craigslist ad wanting "taboo" sex, police said.
The adoptive father was going to meet the undercover detective at a McDonald's in a nearby city, but police moved in two days before the scheduled meeting, according to records. They confronted the man with text messages and online communications about arranging sex with the boy, police said in a case report filed in court.
The FBI said it was pursuing federal sexual exploitation charges. The adoptive father was being held on $800,000 bond Thursday.
Jason Zwick, 29, of the Dayton suburb of Beavercreek was being held in Miami County on a rape charge and $500,000 bond. Patrick Rieder, 31, was charged with four counts of child rape, the Montgomery County prosecutor's office said. Rieder was being held Thursday without bond in Montgomery County.
The Montgomery County prosecutor on Thursday also charged the adoptive father with one count of child rape and four counts of complicity to commit child rape, based on an allegation of sexual assault in Rieder's Dayton home.