PHOENIX – A sex offender who posed as boy while enrolling in charter schools has pleaded guilty to seven charges, including four felony counts of sexual exploitation of a minor.
Authorities don't believe Neil Havens Rodreick II, 30, sexually abused any children at the schools, just attended classes and befriended them.
Rodreick signed a plea agreement Friday in Yavapai County Superior Court, pleading guilty to sexual exploitation of a minor — stemming from child pornography found on his computer — fraud, failure to register as a sex offender and simple assault.
Rodreick had faced at least 15 counts, including forgery. He was previously convicted in a 1996 Oklahoma incident in which he was accused of lewdly propositioning a 6-year-old boy.
Rodreick was caught on Jan. 17, 2007 after spending a day in the seventh grade at a Chino Valley school posing as a 12-year-old.
Authorities said Rodreick powdered his face and shaved his body to look younger in an elaborate, masquerade that police say began at least as far back as 2005.
Mingus Springs administrators called police when Rodreick's birth certificate and other enrollment paperwork didn't check out. Police later caught him at a home with two other convicted sex offenders and a 61-year-old man who had posed as Rodreick's grandfather.
At first, Rodreick's disguise was good enough to convince police that he was a preteen. Only later did arresting officers notice stubble poking through Rodreick's pancake makeup.
In all, investigators say Rodreick attended four schools during the past few years in Surprise, Chino Valley, Payson and Prescott Valley.
While living in Payson, police there said Rodreick started a skateboarding club with several children between 13 and 17. He allegedly brought some of them home, but none reported being harmed.
Sentencing is to be held no later than Sept. 30.
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