Police Say Sex Offender, 29, Posed as a Boy
4 Charged in Scheme in Which Convict Allegedly Trolled Arizona Charter Schools

By Terry Greene Sterling
Special to The Washington Post
Sunday, January 28, 2007

CHINO VALLEY, Ariz., Jan. 26 -- A 29-year-old convicted sex offender pretending to be a 12-year-old boy attended at least four Arizona charter schools in the past 17 months, forcing parents, teachers and police to scramble across a wide swath of the state to locate children who may have been preyed upon.

Neil Havens Rodreick II, who disguised himself as a boy by shaving his body hair, wearing pancake makeup and dressing as a preteen, used forged documents and accomplices who acted as adult guardians to gain entree into the publicly funded charter schools, authorities said. The indictments of him and his three roommates have stunned central Arizona.

"What is really shocking here is that four men were living in rural Arizona in a sex ring, and they targeted a small rural charter school by having one of their members pose as a child," said Rebecca Ruffner, executive director of Prevent Child Abuse Arizona, a Prescott-based statewide advocacy group for children.

With about 475 charter schools, Arizona is a leader in the movement toward the publicly funded independent schools.

"Because charter schools are smaller and more grass-roots, they may be perceived by predators as easy marks," Ruffner said.

State education officials will meet Monday to investigate the incidents and question whether Arizona's charter schools may require more oversight, said Amy Rezzonico, a spokeswoman for the Arizona Department of Education.

On Friday, Rodreick and two roommates, Robert James Snow, 44, and Brian Jay Nellis, 34, were indicted by a Yavapai County grand jury on multiple felony charges, including child pornography, forgery and failure to register as sex offenders. A fourth roommate, Lonnie Eugene Stiffler, 61, was charged with sexual exploitation of a minor, fraud, attempted child molestation, attempted sexual conduct with a minor and forgery. If convicted on all counts, each man could face 100 years in prison.

The four men refused requests for interviews.

Local media have reported that Rodreick had a video of himself having sex with a child; Yavapai County sheriff's officials declined to comment on that.

Court records spell out a cunning and complicated ruse. Rodreick is thought to have duped Stiffler and Snow into thinking he was 12 so they would act as guardians and help him enroll at the schools.

In Oklahoma in 1996, Rodreick was convicted of making indecent proposals to a child and was sentenced to prison, according to court records. His cellmate was Nellis, also convicted of sex crimes against children, the records say.

Sometime after his release from prison, Rodreick contacted Stiffler and Snow over the Internet. He pretended to be 12 in the online messages, which included child pornography, court records say.

Eventually, Snow, a registered sex offender, and Stiffler, whom police said admitted molesting a child in California, met Rodreick at an Oklahoma motel and took him to Arizona. They had sex with Rodreick, believing that he was 12, court records say.

Rodreick first enrolled as 12-year-old "Casey Rodreick" in Shelby Charter School in Gila County, Ariz., in August 2005. Though enrolled in the school for 21 days, Rodreick attended only seven days of school, said Jamie Garrett, a spokeswoman for the Gila County Sheriff's Office. Snow, posing as Rodreick's guardian, withdrew "Casey" after school officials said his paperwork was incomplete.

"The consensus was he was just a loner, and to our knowledge there was no molesting," Garrett said.

In late 2005 and early 2006, police said, Rodreick and his roommates lived in Payson in a trailer court. According to court records, Rodreick brought classmates to the home. Authorities do not yet know whether those children were molested.

Rodreick next showed up in Surprise, a western suburb of Phoenix, where he was enrolled by his "guardians" in Imagine Elementary-Middle School at Rosefield, according to the school's spokeswoman, Rhonda Cagle. "Casey Price" was enrolled as a seventh-grader from August to November 2006, Cagle said.

"There was nothing that distinguished him from other middle school students," Cagle said. "We had larger students in the seventh grade."

She said Rodreick waited with the other students on the curb after school, seemed quiet and well behaved, and had acne.

So far, Surprise police and school officials say, they have no indication that Rodreick or the other men committed crimes against children in the course of the scam.

In early January, Rodreick, Nellis, Stiffler and Snow moved into a blue-and-pink modular house on a quiet street in Chino Valley. According to court records, Stiffler said he enrolled Rodreick for a few days in early January at Achieve Academy, a charter school in nearby Prescott Valley.

Then on Jan. 17, Stiffler enrolled Rodreick in the Mingus Springs Charter School in Chino Valley. Julie Bradshaw, a school counselor, noticed discrepancies in the documents Stiffler gave the school. She also thought "Casey" was older than 12. Bradshaw notified the Yavapai County Sheriff's Office, which quickly learned that Rodreick, Snow and Nellis are convicted sex offenders.

The men were arrested Jan. 18. At the time of Rodreick's arrest, investigators noted that his five o'clock shadow was poking through his makeup.

Snow and Stiffler were angry that they had been having sex with a man when they thought they were having sex with a 12-year-old, authorities said.

"Everybody in town thinks this is just terrible," said Jackie Eaton, 50, who has lived in Chino Valley for 16 years. "This has left a strong impression on the community. We are more watchful now."

"You come to a place like this because you want to get out of the congested city. And then these four guys hook up in Chino Valley," she said. "Holy cow, this is wild."