By Krystal Smalley
ksmalley@wbcowqel.com

Crawford County Municipal Court Judge Shane Leuthold set a $2 million bond for a man accused of allegedly possessing nude photos of teenagers and committing sexual battery.

A 33-year-old Bucyrus man appeared in Municipal Court Friday morning for an initial appearance on two felonies, pandering obscenity involving minor children and sexual battery, felonies 2 and 3, respectively. The pandering felony carries a maximum of eight years in prison while the sexual battery comes with a maximum of 36 months in prison.

The charges alleged that between Jan. 1 and June 28, the defendant created, reproduced, or published obscene material that had a minor as the subject or participant. Between Jan. 1 and June 20, the Bucyrus man also allegedly had sexual conduct with another without the person’s knowledge.

According to assistant prosecutor Rob Kidd, police officers were called to the defendant’s apartment after they received a call from his live-in girlfriend that she found nude photos of teenagers on his computer, including ones of a 14-year-old relative. Officers took the computer from the home.

Kidd said the photos portrayed the defendant allegedly touching the teen inappropriately while she was unconscious. He added that it appeared someone else took the photos while it was happening.

“It’s quite severe,” Kidd said about the content of the photos. He later added that the allegations could “very well lead to an indictment for rape.”

According to Kidd, police interviewed the victim, who said she did not remember the events happening, but stated that the defendant allegedly made her say she had sexual feelings towards him.

As the defendant sat in a chair listening to the allegations over videoconference from the Crawford County Justice Center, he told Leuthold that his girlfriend was involved in taking the photos, at which point Leuthold reminded him he was without counsel and should not speak.

Leuthold noted that the defendant had a history of perpetrating on children and, through his own admission, he and his girlfriend allegedly incapacitated the 14-year-old.

“It sounds an awful lot like rape to me,” Leuthold said. He added that the allegations made in the case concerning the actions done to the victim made it one of the worst crimes his court saw and the defendant was one of the worst kind of dangers to the community.

“Anyone that would do these horrific crimes to (the victim) would do this to another,” Leuthold said.

With the possibility of rape charges coming and the concern of the defendant being a flight risk, Leuthold set bond at $2 million. He also ordered the defendant to have no contact with the victim or other children. Mansfield-based attorney James Mayer III was appointed as the defendant’s counsel.

“I will not give him another opportunity to molest another child,” Leuthold stated.

Before going off the record on the case, the defendant asked whether his girlfriend would also be investigated. Kidd said he could not comment on an open investigation.

The Bucyrus man had numerous charges filed against him in the past in Marion, according to Kidd, ranging from contributing to the delinquency of a minor, domestic violence, child endangerment, and unlawful sexual contact with a minor. He was sentenced to seven months in prison for the unlawful sexual contact charge in 2005.

EDITOR’S NOTE: In an effort to protect the identity of victims of sexual crimes, we have chosen not to identify the accused.