HORRIBLE Defendant Accused of GROOMING Neighborhood BOYS!

[00:00:00]Waldron case 260R 04 3455.

[00:00:05]Mr. Waldron is present with his attorneys Tanner J. Tanner Duncan, Ryan Nelson.

[00:00:13]Good afternoon.

[00:00:15]>> Good afternoon, Your Honor.

[00:00:16]>> And the state is represented by Kevin Hardman and Julie Kraft.

[00:00:20]Uh we're here for a bond hearing.

[00:00:23]Uh do you want to be Mr. um Waldron is charged with five counts. Uh he's charged with three counts of gross sexual imposition.

[00:00:41]Those are felony threes. They carry Uh is that 36 or 60 months?

[00:00:46]>> It's 60 months, yeah.

[00:00:47]>> 60 months in prison.

[00:00:49]And what's the fine on that?

[00:00:52]>> 10,000.

[00:00:53]>> 10,000 is the maximum fine. Importuning is a felony three.

[00:00:58]Uh that's also a 60-month charge.

[00:01:01]Is that correct?

[00:01:04]Either 60 or 30 >> I would have to double-check.

[00:01:06]>> Okay, can you double-check that?

[00:01:08]>> Yeah.

[00:01:09]>> And he's charged with gross sexual imposition, felony three on count five. Uh that I understand is 60 months. The importuning may be 36 months.

[00:01:20]Um maximum fine. I mean, maximum penalty.

[00:01:24]Um so, do you want to go ahead and be heard on that?

[00:01:27]>> Yes, Your Honor, thank you. And this was an advance date, Your Honor. We already do have a pretrial set for the 22nd. We appreciate the court uh taking this matter in advance. Your Honor, um at the arraignments, um Mr. Waldron has granted uh GPS, but that is strict um lockdown GPS. Uh we are asking the court to consider the bond request for him to have permission to leave for work purposes. He is licensed as a real estate uh agent, so he would be traveling to various property locations and different locations around the Cincinnati and Dayton areas. However, he would be able to provide his GPS officer with proof before he would ever leave the house. We're also asking the court to consider him to allow Mr. Waldron to leave at set times for personal household errands as he is the sole individual at his household that would be for things such as grocery, supplies, banking, post office, gas station, pharmacy and to visit his storage unit, your honor.

[00:02:19]We're asking that to be Tuesdays 8:00 a.m. to noon and Thursdays 10:00 a.m. to 2:00. So, within those constrained hours and also permission for him to go to his apartment complex on-site gym. He is living in Mason, Ohio. We are not asking for any other conditions to be modified at this time, your honor.

[00:02:43]>> Anything from the state?

[00:02:46]>> You You understand that I that the court probably is very inclined to look at opportunities for the defendant to continue to be employed. His obviously employment makes it difficult for our probation to make the appropriate steps in order to ensure that he's where he's supposed to be and that the public is protected.

[00:03:06]This is one of those cases where we as the state of Ohio are very concerned about knowing where the defendant's whereabouts are. The allegations involved here there's there's basically two different sets of individuals involved in all the charges. There's the charges you mentioned, the felony charges that exist here, involve the defendant's stepchildren.

[00:03:27]The other charges, which are all misdemeanors, counts of grooming, public indecency, involve four neighborhood children that the defendant was engaging in activities with and and as the indictment indicates for the purpose of grooming them for ultimate sexual activity with regard to those four kids. There are other children that have had access that the defendant has had access to The that have also been spoken to. I think as a total we talked spoken to about 10 other neighborhood children who the defendant was regularly in contact with when he was engaged in the activities for which he has been indicted.

[00:04:09]Based on that history, that past, based on the fact that at least one of these victims' parents was aware of the defendant making contact with his child with their child without their permission, telling the defendant stop making this contact, the defendant doing it anyway, and having hiding that from the parents through that that minor child just shows I think this defendant's lack of ability to follow request, reasonable request, much less what he would do based on whatever order this court were to present to this defendant.

[00:04:50]We believe and and I would say we we've as we've heard from the victims' representatives, the children's parents that are involved in this case, that very strict controls over where the defendant is and what he is doing while this case is pending and gets to a resolution is what's in the best interest of the protection of the public from any further activities on this part of this defendant.

[00:05:16]>> All right. Does the victim wish to be heard, any victim representative statement?

[00:05:22]>> There are two representatives here from two of the victim well, three of the victims that are involved. They they have they feel that what we've just stated is appropriate at this particular time.

[00:05:29]>> Okay.

[00:05:30]All right, thank you. Anything else from the defense?

[00:05:34]>> Your Honor, we would just our nearly tailored requests. We're not asking him for for him to be removed from GPS ankle monitoring at this time so probation will know where he is at at all times.

[00:05:43]Also, your Honor, he has a a complete lack, to my understanding, a complete lack of any sort of criminal history.

[00:05:49]Um and I know the pre-trial services uh report did indicate a a low risk factor there as well. We'd ask the court to take that in consideration, as well.

[00:05:59]>> Okay. Um is the um gymnasium or gym at the apartment complex, are children allowed in that?

[00:06:10]Do we know the answer to that?

[00:06:13]>> I do not know the answer to that. We would be able to supplement the court with the the answer.

[00:06:17]>> Okay.

[00:06:18]Um as far as the I understand the need of people to work and the need for people to go to the grocery and do things [clears throat] like that.

[00:06:31]Uh especially people who are presumed innocent. I've seen times when someone's charged with the crime and once they have a trial uh they're exonerated, and you can't go back and give them that time.

[00:06:47]Um the problem is if you weigh that with the allegations being um approaching and in my mind, endangering children.

[00:07:02]Um I think that makes it a different different story.

[00:07:07]Um I also understand people have to make a living.

[00:07:15]Um but sounds like the nature of his job is such that he's out one part of town one day, one part of town another day, uh depending on wherever his uh the real estate listing is, if for lack of a better word.

[00:07:35]Um >> We'll address this at the pre-trial, but for now, I'm overruling the motion on bond.

[00:07:50]Uh, you can have information on, um, the apartment, um, gym.

[00:07:57]And you can order groceries online now, so it's not quite the same.

[00:08:03]Um, and I'd like a a little more information before I make a decision on his employment for us.

[00:08:11]I know we would our community corrections, they know where someone's at 24/7. They they know where someone is located 24/7.

[00:08:22]Um, and that's satisfactory, but I just think we need a bit more information to firm up what that means when he goes there.

[00:08:32]Um, how much time is involved there, what is done there, things like that. So, we'll address this at the pre-trial again, but for now, I'm going, uh, overruling the motion to modify the bond.

[00:08:45]>> Thank you, Ron.

[00:08:45]>> All right. That's all.

[00:08:49]>> trips to King's Island, ice cream, and special attention. Warren County prosecutors say the grooming led to sex crime charges. Thanks for joining us at 5:30. I'm Lindsey Stone.

[00:08:59]>> And I'm Chris Jacobs. The alleged victims in this case are all elementary school-aged boys, and WLWT News 5's Karen Johnson is live in Lebanon with the story you'll only see right here on WLWT, Karen.

[00:09:10]>> Yeah, good evening, Chris. To some children in Michael Waldron's previous neighborhood, he was the fun neighbor, the one who took them places, to King's Island, McDonald's, bought them things, gave them money. But to prosecutors, it was all part of the grooming process.

[00:09:26]>> Hey, how are you doing?

[00:09:26]>> Hi, good. How are you?

[00:09:27]>> Good. How are you? Can you step out real quick?

[00:09:29]>> This is the moment deputies arrested 56-year-old Michael Waldron, who was on the phone with his attorney at the time of the traffic stop.

[00:09:36]>> Just turn around. He's taking my phone.

[00:09:38]>> Okay.

[00:09:38]>> You can listen. I'm >> Is that your lawyer?

[00:09:41]>> Yes.

[00:09:41]>> Okay.

[00:09:42]>> What's going on?

[00:09:42]>> You got a warrant for your arrest.

[00:09:44]>> Waldron was indicted on 12 child sex-related crimes. The licensed real estate appraiser is accused of grooming and molesting children, fourth and fifth graders, in the Lebanon neighborhood where he previously lived.

[00:09:56]>> We know that there were at least six boys who were victimized by uh this man.

[00:10:02]And so, if you're asking me, you know, could there potentially be other victims out there? Absolutely.

[00:10:06]>> The alleged crimes took place over a 4-year period starting in 2021, according to the indictment.

[00:10:13]Investigators say Waldron would take children to Kings Island, have them over his house, and offer them treats and money.

[00:10:19]>> Uh just a a really sick individual to to kind of target this group of, you know, mostly neighborhood boys, and uh befriend them, and then begin the grooming process with them.

[00:10:32]>> Prosecutor David Fornshell says some parents grew uneasy and warned Waldron to stay away. But investigators say he continued contacting the kids.

[00:10:40]>> He was on group chats just with these boys, and so uh there were a lot of obviously inappropriate things that were going on.

[00:10:48]>> Waldron's attorney, J. Tanner Duncan, releasing a statement saying, "While we understand the serious nature of the allegations, Mr. Waldron remains innocent until proven guilty and looks forward to his day in court."

[00:11:02]>> And Waldron had his bond set at $100,000.

[00:11:05]Records show he posted that bond and is currently out of jail on a GPS monitor.

[00:11:11]I should mention records also show he no longer lives in that neighborhood in Lebanon and is currently living in Mason.