Print ArticleEmail ArticleMost EmailedBigger TypeSmaller TypePhone AlertsRSS FeedsSex offender who posed as preteen first arrested in '96
Judi Villa
The Arizona Republic
Jan. 26, 2007 09:03 PM
A convicted sex offender posing as a preteen boy may have been honing his ruse since 2005, law enforcement officials are discovering.
But his odyssey may actually date back more than a decade, to April 1996, when Neil Havens Rodreick II first was arrested for asking a 6-year-old boy to pull down his pants.
The already bizarre case took yet another twist on Friday when Gila County Sheriff John Armer confirmed that Rodreick, 29, registered at Shelby Charter School near Payson on Aug. 4, 2005. He attended nine days of class over the next month, using the name Casy Havens Rodreick and birthdate that made him 13. advertisement
His attendance at the school came a full year before Rodreick enrolled at a charter school in Surprise, pretending to be a 12-year-old seventh-grader named "Casey Price." Casey played at recess and did his homework at the school from August until November, when he stopped showing up for class.
Investigators have said Rodreick may have been trying "to ingratiate himself" with potential victims.
Rodreick resurfaced last week when he tried to enroll at a charter school in Chino Valley. School officials became suspicious about his paperwork, and the scam unraveled. Rodreick was arrested, along with Lonnie Stiffler, 61, Robert Snow, 43, and Brian Nellis, 34.
Stiffler and Snow reportedly believed Rodreick was 12 and had a sexual relationship with him. Nellis is a former cellmate from Oklahoma.
All four men are believed to be involved in the con and were indicted Friday on multiple counts. Rodreick faces 25 counts that include sexual exploitation of a minor (child pornography), fraudulent schemes, forgery and failure to register as a sex offender.
He was released from an Oklahoma prison in January 2002.
About two years ago, Rodreick met Snow through an Internet conversation, investigators at the Yavapai County Sheriff's Office have said. Snow and Stiffler went to Oklahoma, met Rodreick at a hotel and brought him to Arizona, investigators have said.
Stiffler told school administrators in Chino Valley that he was Rodreick's grandfather. When Rodreick enrolled at Shelby Charter School, Snow posed as his uncle, Armer said.
Snow told school officials Rodreick was home schooled in Oklahoma from grades 1 to 6. Armer said school officials "were persistent" in trying to obtain proper records, and Snow withdrew Rodreick on Sept. 2, 2005.
None of the students at the Payson area school reported contact with Rodreick, "other than to say hello," Armer said. Rodreick reportedly "was a loner who stayed to himself most of the time."
"He did not attend classes long enough for other students to get to know him," Armer said.
Rodreick's 1996 arrest provides an early glimpse of a propensity for young boys.
Then 18 years old, Rodreick approached a 6-year-old boy as he got off a school bus, luring him to a field under the guise of seeing a "clubhouse," according to the arrest affidavit from the Chickasha Police Department in Oklahoma. Rodreick told the boy he could be "a warrior" in the clubhouse if he pulled down his pants, lay on his stomach and let Rodreick "teach him about sex."
When the boy said he didn't want to do that, Rodreick walked him halfway home.
Rodreick admitted what he had done, the affidavit says, and told police he had "a problem."
"He said he does want help."
