LEBANON, Ohio —

A Deerfield Township man accused of sexually assaulting children had his bond set at $300,000 Thursday.

John "Ben" Reynolds, 53, is charged with one count of rape and one count of gross sexual imposition. Detectives with the Warren County Sheriff's Office said they've identified three victims who were known to Reynolds.

According to court documents obtained by WLWT, the children are currently between 13 and 14 years old. Two are girls and one is a boy. Documents state the sexual assaults started in 2016 and took place at multiple locations including Liberty Center, the KOA campground in Lebanon, a local YMCA and Reynolds' home.

The children told social workers who interviewed them that Reynolds would buy them items such as jewelry, clothes, stuffed animals, toys and candy, according to court documents.

The investigation into the assaults began after the mother of a child reported Reynolds to Butler County Children Services in April.

During Reynolds' arraignment Thursday, his attorney, Edward Perry, said his client was a family man.

"He is married, judge. He's been married for 29 years, and he's got three grown children," Perry said.

Perry said his client moved to Warren County after graduating from Southern Illinois University in 1992.

"He came to Warren County and made Warren County his home, and he's been here ever since. He was married here. He purchased and bought a home in Mason, Ohio. Him, his wife and his family have been in that house in Mason for the last 22 years," Perry said.

Perry said Reynolds has been employed as a software developer, most recently by the Cincinnati Financial Corporation.

"He suspects that, because of his arrest, that job is no longer available to him," Perry said.

Detectives said Reynolds was involved with a Boy Scout troop out of Mason, but they say the children are not associated with the scouts.

Reynolds is scheduled to be back in Lebanon Municipal Court on June 2 for a preliminary hearing.

Johnny Pinchback spent 27 years behind bars for a crime he didn't commit.

"It was hell, right here on Earth," he said. "Pure hell."

Pinchback was convicted of aggravated sexual assault and sentenced to 99 years in prison.

"Man, it is very hurtful, very painful," he continued. "A whole bunch of guys that were sent there for rape crimes and child molestation, that couldn't defend themselves — they were raped themselves, beat up and raped themselves, and so many of them killed themselves."

Thanks to DNA evidence and the Texas Innocence Project, Pinchback has been a free man for 11 years but says his readjustment into society has been its own challenge.

"After I got out, you know, I was lost, man," Pinchback said. "When I got out, it was a shock, man. It was a cultural shock."

Despite how tough his experience has been on his psyche, Pinchback says formal therapy didn't work for him.

"They sent a few of us to it," he said. "We were like, 'Man, we do counseling and do therapy for each other.' And that's what we did."

Chantal Fahmy is a University of Texas San Antonio professor and has spent her career studying the formerly incarcerated.

She says reentry into society is its own punishment and takes a toll mentally.

"Their education really hasn't changed all that much. So, it's not like they're attaining these jobs that they weren't able to get prior," she said. "They're ineligible for a lot of forms of public assistance, like welfare. They're alienated from mainstream life, period."

A study from the University of Chicago compares the mental toll of being wrongfully imprisoned to the anguish suffered by military veterans and torture survivors.

Researchers say common effects among the exonerated include severe PTSD, persistent personality changes, depression and complex feelings of loss.

Fahmy says the resources specifically for exonerees are very limited, but for anyone leaving prison, family support can have a positive impact.

"When you have a solid support system in both of those ways, whether it's from family or whether it's from friends, your mental health is better," she said.

Anna Vasquez spent 13 years behind bars for a crime that never happened.

She and three other women were charged with gang raping two children, and their story was featured in the documentary "Southwest of Salem."

Ultimately, their conviction was thrown out due to inaccurate scientific testimony and an admission by the accuser that her father forced her to make false allegations.

Vasquez now serves as the director of outreach for the Innocence Project of Texas and says she hopes she can be that resource for people in her position.

"I think it brings them some comfort," she said. "You know, when I speak to them, it's not coming from an attorney, or a paralegal, you know, it is somebody that has actually been there, going through what they're going through. … It's just hard to relate to somebody that has never been in prison."

As technology has advanced, exonerations have become more common.

According to the National Registry of Exonerations, more than 3,000 people have been wrongly convicted and exonerated since 1989, amounting to 25,000 years lost behind bars.

"I'm still a work in progress, you know?" Vasquez said. "Actually, yesterday, it was my brother's, I guess, death anniversary. I don't know how I should say that, but it makes me mad when I think about [the fact] I only had two years with him. It's anger, frustration. Unbelievable that something like this could happen."

Those 3,000 people who have now been exonerated are also reintegrating into society while dealing with unimaginable trauma and potential mental health challenges.

"Talking about your feelings or your emotions in prison was not to be done, you know?" Vasquez said. "You hid under a cover and you cried. So, the way that I coped with it was, I was hopeful. But I will not tell you that I didn't have my bad days. And you know, I was depressed, but I always seem to pick myself up."

Pinchback says the time he spends with other people who have been wrongfully convicted is his own kind of therapy.

"I've got another friend about 10 minutes from here," he said. "He did 31 years wrongfully convicted, and sometimes we'll joke around and stuff like that about prison we'll be joking and stuff like, 'Hey man, I'm going to the commissary today. Would you bring me three soups?' … Then we'll say, 'Hey man, it is a blessing for that to be behind us.'"

Pinchback and Vasquez regularly speak to law students and tell their stories to make that story less common.

"That's my job," Pinchback said. "It's my job until I die, man, until I can't do it no more. It's my job."

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COLUMBIA, S.C. —

A judge will determine whether evidence of disbarred South Carolina attorney Alex Murdaugh's alleged financial crimes is admissible in an upcoming double-murder trial that has drawn worldwide attention for its bizarre twists.

Prosecutors recently said that Murdaugh killed his wife and youngest son last year to gain sympathy and distract others from his damning financial crimes. On Friday, prosecutors and defense attorneys debated the relevance of those years of alleged financial misdeeds that lined Murdaugh’s pockets with nearly $9 million.

Murdaugh, the disgraced heir to a Lowcountry legal dynasty, has pleaded not guilty and repeatedly denied any involvement in the June 2021 slayings of his wife, Maggie, 52, and their son Paul, 22.

According to prosecutors, at the time of the killings, Murdaugh was terrified about a pending motion that threatened to expose years of substantial debts and illicit financial crimes by revealing his personal records. Such a move would have spelled “personal, legal, and financial ruin” for Murdaugh, state grand jury chief prosecutor Creighton Waters wrote in a filing Thursday.

Prosecutors said Murdaugh was a drug addict who helped run a money laundering and painkiller ring and stole millions from settlements he secured for mostly poor clients to fund an increasingly unsustainable lifestyle.

According to Waters, high-profile, six-figure cases had failed to alleviate Murdaugh's financial woes, prompting Murdaugh to do anything to avoid his “day of reckoning” — including murder.

Conveniently for Murdaugh, Waters said, the discovery of his slain family members temporarily suspended the increased scrutiny over his finances. Murdaugh would spend the following days collecting money to account for missing fees sought by his law firm, Waters said.

“This is a white-collar case that culminated in murders," Waters told Circuit Judge Clifton Newman on Friday.

A motive is not necessary for a prosecutor to win a murder conviction — a point Waters made in the state's latest filing. But Murdaugh's lawyers asked the state to spell out the motive in order to justify including a million pages of evidence related to over 80 counts of alleged financial crimes.

Murdaugh’s defense attorneys insisted Friday that the alleged crimes amounted to character evidence that is not admissible into murder trials.

Defense attorney Jim Griffin said it is ridiculous to claim that a person seeking to distract from financial crimes would then put themself at the center of a murder investigation.

Griffin also said there is no reason to admit the financial documents since there’s no evidence that Murdaugh’s family knew of any alleged crimes or that Murdaugh stood to benefit from collecting any life insurance policies.

The idea that Murdaugh sought to engender sympathy through the deaths is also illogical, according to Griffin, considering Murdaugh's father was dying on the day they were slain — an experience sure to provide plenty of pity.

The defense has criticized what they see as the slow release of evidence linking Murdaugh to the slayings.

Central to the defense's concerns is the presence of blood stains on a white T-shirt allegedly worn by Murdaugh on the night of the killings. Attorney Dick Harpootlian has argued that South Carolina Law Enforcement Division agents successfully persuaded a forensic consultant to reverse his initial judgment and instead say the stains must be backspatter from a bullet wound. Harpootlian said SLED destroyed the shirt and had evidence suggesting the stains were not a human's blood.

Defense attorneys on Friday sought an evidentiary hearing compelling the state to provide all communications with the consultant. Prosecutors said any ruling on the bloody shirt's consideration would be premature as they themselves are still assessing whether they will use it as evidence.

Throughout Friday’s hearing, Murdaugh, donning a blazer, sat unshackled and could occasionally be seen speaking with his attorneys.

Prosecutors shared inklings of new details earlier this week. Within a minute of his first conversation with responding officers on the day of the killings, Murdaugh allegedly claimed the slaying must have been connected to the February 2019 boat wreck that killed teenager Mallory Beach.

Beach was killed when authorities say an intoxicated Paul Murdaugh wrecked his father's boat — an event that ultimately led to dozens of charges accusing Alex Murdaugh of stealing nearly $5 million in settlement money from lawyers who sued him over the death. Murdaugh now faces additional charges involving money laundering, a narcotics ring, a staged attempt on his life and millions of additional stolen funds.

And while Murdaugh seemed wealthy, prosecutors said it was a series of land deals worsened by recession that “permanently changed his finances.”

The events of the past 18 months have marked a steep fall for the Murdaughs. The family founded a massive civil law firm over 100 years ago in tiny Hampton County, where — alongside four surrounding counties — Murdaugh’s father, grandfather and great-grandfather dominated the legal scene as the area’s elected prosecutors for more than eight decades.

“The jury will need to understand the distinction between who Alex Murdaugh appeared to be to the outside world — a successful lawyer and scion of the most prominent family in the region — and who he was in the real life only he fully knew — an allegedly crooked lawyer and drug user who borrowed and stole wherever he could to stay afloat and one step ahead of the detection,” Waters wrote Thursday.

LEBANON, Ohio —

The trial continued Tuesday for a former youth sports coach on trial for sex crimes involving children.

Eric Schmidt is charged with one count of rape, two counts of gross sexual imposition and two counts of public indecency.

Tuesday's testimony centered around text messages one of the accusers sent to friends the night she claims she was molested.

That accuser is 19 years old, but she was 12 in 2015 — the year prosecutors say crimes against her were committed.

The teenager said she was friends with Schmidt's daughter and was at their house for a sleepover in April 2015.

During her testimony, she read text messages she sent to friends that night from Schmidt's home in Mason.

"I said, 'I really don't understand why you find that funny. No, seriously, it's a remarried man trying to rape a freaking 12-year-old kid," the accuser said.

She said Schmidt exposed himself and touched her inappropriately in the theatre room of the house after his daughter fell asleep.

Assistant prosecutor Travis Vieux asked her, "Did the defendant touch your hand?"

"Yes," she said.

Vieux asked, "Did he touch your arm?"

"Yes," she said.

Vieux asked, "Did he rub up your arm?"

"Yes," she said.

Vieux asked, "Did he touch your shoulder?"

"Yes," she said.

Vieux asked, "Did he touch your breast?"

"Yes," she said.

While prosecutors are trying to use the accuser's texts as proof that Schmidt is guilty of gross sexual imposition and public indecency, defense attorneys tried using the messages to their advantage.

During cross-examination, defense attorney Bill Gallagher asked, "Eric is trying to touch you?"

"Yes," she said.

Gallagher asked, "You don't yell, right?"

"No," she said.

Gallagher asked, "You said you just sort of froze?"

"Yes," she said."

Gallagher questioned how could she be frozen at the same time she carried on text message conversations with multiple friends.

"Does it shock you at all, in all of your text messaging in here, there's not a single spelling mistake, but you're stressed out and trying to figure out what to do?" Gallagher said.

"It's called autocorrect," the accuser said.

Mason Detective Jeff Wyss also took the stand Tuesday. He said he began to investigate the 2015 allegations, but the case was closed when the accuser's family decided not to pursue charges.

That case was reopened in 2019 after a second accuser, also 12 at the time, made allegations against Schmidt.

He's been charged with rape in that case.

Prosecutors said that accuser was sexually assaulted at a party for football families in the Kings and Mason area.

Schmidt had coached youth football, baseball and softball.

That girl is 14 years old now and is expected to testify Wednesday.

Before calling her to the stand, prosecutors called a relative of Schmidt's to testify about what she said she witnessed in January 2015 when she was temporarily staying with the family.

She was 19 years old at the time.

She said she was alone with Schmidt watching Vampire Diaries when he suggested they watch the show downstairs.

She said they relocated to the theater room and continued watching Netflix.

Vieux asked her to describe what Schmidt did that she thought to be sexually inappropriate.

"When we were watching Netflix, after some time, the notice on the Netflix screen says 'Do you wish to continue? Click yes or no.' That had popped up. I looked to my right to see if the remote was near me to click yes. It wasn't there. I had turned to my left and Mr. Schmidt was sitting there with his genitals out," the relative said.

Schmidt has not been charged with any crime in connection to that incident.

Schmidt maintains his innocence. Gallagher previously said Schmidt passed a polygraph test.

CINCINNATI — The Hamilton County prosecutor announced his intention to cut down on crimes involving illegal guns in Cincinnati.

Joe Deters referred to it as “declaring war” in a Tweet Tuesday afternoon.

He said he has directed all assistant prosecutors in the county to reject plea-bargain deals on any cases involving gun violence or possession of illegal guns.

“It’s time for this nonsense to end,” Deters Tweeted.

The announcement comes two days after two teenagers killed each other in a double-fatal shooting at Smale Riverfront Park during Fourth of July festivities.