NEWS

Former Ohio child care worker faces 74 sex counts

Eric Lagatta
Gannett Ohio

ZANESVILLE – A man who spent six years working in Zanesville as a child care worker faces a maximum of 559 years in prison if convicted on all charges accusing him of sexual misconduct with a 15-year-old.

Rodney A. Curtis, 34, pleaded not guilty to 74 charges Wednesday in Muskingum County Common Pleas Court.

On March 18, he was indicted on 63 counts of illegal use of a minor involved in nudity-related material, second-degree felonies, and 11 counts of sexual battery, third-degree felonies.

The first 63 charges refer to multiple incidents between last April 28 and Sept. 24, said Muskingum County Prosecutor Mike Haddox. The counts accuse Curtis of either photographing the minor or creating, directing, producing, or transferring the material.

The other 11 contained in Curtis' 19-page indictment refer to sexual battery against a female who was 15 at the time between April 16 and July 18.

He was arrested on a warrant last Friday and has since been held at the Muskingum County Jail on a $1 million bond.

The victim was a resident at the Avondale Youth Center, where Curtis had been employed for six years as a child care worker, said David Boyer, executive director of Muskingum County Adult and Child Protective Services, the parent of Avondale.

Founded in 1911, the Youth Center on Roseville Road serves as a therapeutic intervention center for youths between ages 10 and 18 who have been abused or neglected. Children at the center have often been diagnosed with mental health disorders and emotional problems.

The agency took immediate action after a staff member received a personal disclosure about the alleged conduct between Curtis and the victim, Boyer said.

Boyer said Curtis passed a rigorous background check before he was hired. Boyer called the situation "tragic," and said his agency plans to help investigators any way they can as the case develops.

"We must take this very seriously because we are mandated and charged with protecting children from harm," Boyer said. "This is a dark day for our agency and Avondale, and we we are going to do everything it takes, everything possible, to make sure this does not happen again."

"We're confident the truth will be arrived at and justice served," he said.

Curtis would next be given a trial date in common pleas court, Haddox said. Haddox noted children at this facility are already victims of these types of abuse.

"It's pretty sad when you put them in a residential facility and they're abused again, revictimized," he said. "There needs to be some changes made so these types of things don't occur."