Fremont man indicted on child sex crimes

FREMONT — A Fremont man is facing criminal charges for allegedly sexually assaulting a child. On April 4, Randall E. Frederick, 61, 1000 block Birdseye Blvd., was indicted by a Sandusky County grand jury on three counts of sexual battery, each a third-degree felony. The alleged crimes occurred between October 2019 and February 2021 when he allegedly "engaged in sexual conduct" with a child he was entrusted to care for, according to Frederick's indictment. Background The investigation into Frederick first began on Nov. 11, 2023, after Fremont police were called to a local business due to a man allegedly making inappropriate comments to a female employee, according to a Fremont police report. When an officer arrived at the business, they began speaking with the employee who had made the call. The woman told police that a man came into the store and asked if he could take the pumpkins sitting outside. While she waited for a response from her boss regarding the man's request, he allegedly began making sexually explicit comments towards her, the report states. The woman told officers that she was uncomfortable and started recording the interaction with the man on her phone. The woman played the recording for the officer, who allegedly said that he recognized the voice as Frederick's, according to the report. While listening to the recording, the officer could allegedly hear Frederick telling the employee that he knows a woman who caught on fire and that he touched the woman's breasts to put out the fire, and that he currently has a lawsuit against him, the report states. The woman allegedly told the officer that she had pretended to have received a response from her boss, stating that Frederick could take the pumpkins so he could leave the store. The woman additionally told the officer that Frederick continued to tell her more stories and that he allegedly receives messages from 15-year-old girls on Facebook and that he wants to go into "sex trafficking" to save kids, the report states. Due to the information received from the employee and the recording itself, officers went to Frederick's home that evening to speak with him about the complaint made against him. While speaking with officers, Frederick denied making inappropriate comments to the employee and that he was simply telling her about what he did to protect a woman when their "breasts" caught on fire, the report states. When officers asked Frederick about the comment he made to the employee about him allegedly receiving messages from underage girls on Facebook, he allegedly told officers that he receives messages but deletes them from his phone, the report states. Frederick allowed officers to check his phone and allegedly told them that he no longer had a Facebook account due to it being hacked. While looking through Frederick's phone, officers allegedly found a text conversation between him and an unknown woman talking about "underage" and "sex," the report states. When police asked Frederick about the conversation, he allegedly denied sending any messages to the woman and claimed that it must have been someone else. Officers advised Frederick that they would be seizing his phone as evidence, and he consented to letting them search and download the contents of his phone, the report states. Alleged contents of the phone The next day, a Fremont police officer conducted a forensic examination of the phone, revealing more than 38,000 images, 10,000 messages and 700 videos. Officers also conducted a physical search of Frederick's phone, focusing mainly on the Signal app, as messages within that app wouldn't be included in the report since they are encrypted, the report states. While searching through Frederick's phone, officers allegedly found several sexually explicit text conversations between him and multiple women who claim to have young daughters. Throughout the text conversations, police noted that Frederick often requested nude or sexually suggestive photos of the underage girls, the report states. Due to the large number of messages found on Frederick's phone and the limited data provided in the report from the download, Fremont police turned over the case to one of their detectives for further investigation. Woman comes forward This past October, a woman visited the Fremont police department to meet with a detective, stating that she had Frederick's old phone, where she allegedly found additional messages and photos of underage girls, the report states. When the detective asked the woman if she had any knowledge of Frederick inappropriately touching or performing sexual acts on anyone, the woman allegedly told police that someone close to her had claimed in the past that Frederick inappropriately touched her as a child. About a month later, the detective interviewed the woman who claimed to have been sexually assaulted by Frederick. When interviewed, the woman allegedly told the detective that the sexual abuse began when she was around eight years old until she became an adult, the report states. On Dec. 21, the detective handling the case allegedly received a call from Frederick and went over to his residence to speak with him about the situation. Frederick reportedly asked the detective not to take him to jail, as it would be a "burden on the county due to his current health condition," the report states. The detective read Frederick his rights and asked him about the allegations made by the woman who claimed that he sexually abused her as a child. Frederick reportedly denied the claims and said to the detective that he couldn't think that far back, the report states. Due to the information received, the case was forwarded to the Sandusky County grand jury for possible rape charges against Frederick due to the age of the woman at the time of the alleged incident, the report states. Since his indictment, Frederick has been released from jail on a $25,000 bond, according to court records. He entered a not-guilty plea at his initial court appearance on April 7. Frederick has an upcoming court hearing scheduled for 2:30 p.m. on May 5.