Sex Offender Posing As 12-Year-Old Took Kids Home, Police Say

Friday, February 2nd 2007, 9:27 pm

By: News On 6

PHOENIX (AP) -- A convicted sex offender from Oklahoma who was posing as a 12-year-old boy to enroll in Arizona schools brought home children who joined a skateboarding club he started in the northern Arizona town of Payson, police said.

None of the children said they had been victimized, according to authorities.

Sgt. Tom Tieman of the Payson Police Department said Friday that Neil Havens Rodreick II, 29, lived in Payson -- 90 miles northeast of Phoenix -- for six to eight months in 2005 and 2006. While he lived there, Rodreick started a skateboarding club.

Tieman said Rodreick recruited members for the club at a skate park popular with teenage boys. Several children between the ages of 13 and 17 joined the skateboarding club and on several occasions, two or three of the boys went to the Payson trailer where Rodreick lived to discuss club matters.

In all, Tieman interviewed 12 children who either interacted with Rodreick as club members or as friends of club members. While Tieman said all of the children and their parents were "disturbed" to learn Rodreick's true age and background, he said none of the children said they had been victimized.

"As is stands right now, I have no crimes," Tieman said.

He added that a few of the children said they did suspect Rodreick was in his upper teens, and even asked him about his age, but that Rodreick only denied being older than 12.

Tieman said the boys told him Rodreick kept to himself and was a really good skater. He added that while he has not interviewed Rodreick, he believes the man began the club as a way to find potential victims.

"None of them are victims, but I think he was setting something up for himself for personal pleasure," Tieman said.

Rodreick declined a request for an interview. His public defender has not returned calls for comments.

Rodreick was arrested last week when school officials at a charter school in Chino Valley, about 90 miles north of Phoenix, questioned his true age, and the authenticity of his birth certificate and other enrollment documents.

Rodreick was arrested with 34-year-old Brian J. Nellis, who was posing as Rodreick's cousin, and two older men posing as the men's uncle and grandfather.

Rodreick is charged with 15 criminal counts in all, including fraud, forgery and failing to register as a sex offender stemming from a 1996 Oklahoma incident in which Rodreick was convicted of lewdly propositioning a 6-year-old boy.

Nellis, Lonnie Eugene Stiffler, 61, and Robert James Snow, 43, have been indicted on various charges, including child pornography and forgery. Nellis and Snow, both convicted sex offenders, were also charged with failing to register with authorities.

When authorities searched the four men's Chino Valley home, they found more than 600 graphic photos and videos of child pornography and a sex tape that depicts Rodreick and a boy between the ages of 10 and 13 having sex in a motel room. Authorities believe the boy in the tape is from Oklahoma, but have not confirmed his identity.

During his two years in Arizona, records show Rodreick enrolled in four charter schools posing as a 12- or 13-year-old. Authorities say he shaved and wore pancake makeup to help him appear younger, convincing teachers, students and administrators that he was a young boy named Casey.

Officials at the Chino Valley school, and at charter schools east of Payson and in the Phoenix suburb of Surprise, say no children had reported being victimized.

But a Yavapai County Sheriff's Office report obtained by The Associated Press on Friday shows that Rodreick grabbed a girl in the buttocks at a charter school in Prescott Valley, 90 miles north of Phoenix.

The girl, who attends the YCFA Achieve Academy, told authorities she shrugged off Rodreick's behavior as immaturity. But when authorities told her Rodreick was actually 29, the report says the girl became very upset and started to cry. She was taken to a counselor. It was unclear Friday whether the incident was connected to an assault charge against Rodreick.

The report also shows Rodreick repeatedly insisted to authorities that he was 12-year-old Casey before his arrest.

"I observed stubble through his makeup. I told Rodreick 12-year-olds don't usually have a mustache," wrote Sgt. Luis Huante in the report.

After later admitting to officers what his real name and age were, Rodreick told them he never had sex with his classmates or the boys from the skateboarding club.