PHOENIX — A youthful-looking sex offender who enrolled in a charter school northwest of Phoenix spent one day in the seventh grade while pretending to be a 12-year-old boy, school officials said Monday.
The Mingus Springs Charter School in Chino Valley, about 90 miles northwest of Phoenix, allowed Neil Havens Rodreick II into school last week. But director Dawn Gonzales said officials called authorities when a man posing as his grandfather presented guardianship papers and a birth certificate that looked phony.
"We thought we had a child abduction here," Gonzales said.
The Yavapai County Sheriff's Office later arrested Rodreick, who is actually 29. The man posing as Rodreick's grandfather, Lonnie Stiffler, 61, also was arrested with two other men, Brian J. Nellis, 34, and Robert James Snow, 43.
Snow, Rodreick and Nellis are all sex offenders, according to authorities. They were held on $50,000 bond for failing to register with local authorities. Stiffler was booked on two counts of forgery and one count of hindering prosecution and ordered held on a $100,000 cash bond. The men are expected to be in court on Thursday.
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