LEBANON, Ohio — A Lebanon man is accused of grabbing a 5-year-old boy at a public restroom at Kroger last month, pulling down his pants and underwear and touching him inappropriately.
Timothy Franklin Back, 22, is next due Thursday in Lebanon Municipal Court on felony charges of kidnapping and gross sexual imposition.
Lebanon police were called Dec. 30 to Kroger at 1425 Columbus Ave. on a report of a sexual assault that happened at the grocery store involving a now former employee and young boy.
The child’s mother told police her 5-year-old son asked to use the restroom around 6 p.m. and went to the men’s room near the employee break area. The mother said she waited near the makeup aisle but that after a few minutes he had not come out so she opened the door without looking in and called out for her son, according to a Lebanon police report.
The boy responded and came out a short time later but was upset. The mother said she was concerned he had an accident but then noticed a man — later identified as Back — come out of the restroom and enter the break room. She then asked her son whether anyone had touched him and he said yes and was able to point out Back in the break area, the report stated.
Back voluntarily spoke with an officer at the police station the night of the allegation against him.
He initially said he only helped the boy pull up his underwear but later said, “Yes, I made a mistake.” He said he saw the boy pull his underwear up “and that was when I tried to fix the front. That’s when I grabbed him,” the report stated. When the officer asked for clarification, Back reportedly said he touched the child’s private area outside his clothes.
The boy was interviewed Jan. 4 at the Child Advocacy Center in coordination with Warren County Children Services. He reported that he went into a stall alone and used the bathroom.
The boy “said he was washing his hands when an unknown male grabbed him and picked him off the floor under his arms and around his waist. … The man carried him back into the stall and used his hand to lock the door,” according to the report.
He said the man pulled his pants and underwear down and then touched his privates and spread his buttocks when his mother called for him, the document stated.
Charges were filed Jan. 5 against Back and he was arrested at his home and booked into the Warren County Jail, where he remains held on a $500,000 cash-only bond.
