HAMILTON COUNTY, Ohio – A 20-year-old Ohio man allegedly raped, impregnated and held a minor captive for months while wearing an electronic monitoring device in connection with a previous abduction case, according to unsealed court records.
Cody Lee Jackson was arrested October 8 at a Greyhound station in Salt Lake City, Utah, on federal charges of production of child pornography and coercion and enticement of a minor to engage in illegal sexual activity, according to an affidavit written by an FBI agent and unsealed this week in federal district court in Cincinnati.
State charges in connection with the latest abduction include rape, unlawful sexual conduct with a minor and kidnapping, the FBI said in a statement.
Jackson allegedly reached out to a 14-year-old girl on Facebook in early February — just months after prosecutors in Hamilton County, Ohio, had charged him with counts of interference with custody, abduction and kidnapping in a separate case in Blue Ash, Ohio, according to the affidavit. The previous charges involved two females — an adult and a minor — who accused Jackson of holding them against their will at a Blue Ash hotel in 2014.
He pleaded not guilty in that earlier case, posted bond and was ordered to wear a GPS ankle monitor under the supervision of the sheriff’s office, the court affidavit said.
While residing in Norwood, Ohio, in an apartment rented for him by his father, Jackson had a taxi bring the girl to his home, where they had sex, according to the affidavit.
The encounters continued for weeks, with Jackson at one point destroying the victim’s phone and changing the passwords to her Facebook and email accounts as a way of controlling her, the court papers said.
By March, Jackson was allegedly arranging for a taxi to deliver the girl to his home after school each day and imposing strict rules on her behavior, according to the affidavit. She was verbally and physically abused when the rules were broken, the court papers said.
It’s unclear whether Jackson has an attorney in the current case. His former attorney did not respond to a request for comment.
The alleged abduction and abuse occurred while Jackson was required to wear the ankle bracelet and to be visited at home by a sheriff’s officer.
Mike Robison, a spokesman for the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office, told CNN on Saturday that Jackson wore the monitoring device between January 22 and July 31. It’s unclear whether Jackson was under any kind of court supervision prior to January.
Robison said there were at least six “unscheduled and unannounced home visits,” and that Jackson reported to his officer each week. Robison said he doesn’t believe the conditions of Jackson’s release included restrictions on the use of social media.
“He complied with all his conditions,” Robison said of Jackson, adding that the sheriff’s office “did everything we were required to do.”
At one point during the teen’s abduction, the affidavit said, the 20-year-old mother of one of Jackson’s children moved into the home to help keep an eye on the alleged victim and run errands for him.
That woman also was verbally and physically abused by the defendant, according to court documents. The woman sometimes took the minor out of the apartment before visits by the sheriff’s office, said the affidavit, which doesn’t explain how she knew about visits that were supposed to be unannounced.
The alleged teen victim learned she was pregnant with Jackson’s child after more than a month under his control, according to the affidavit.
“After Jackson found out [she] was pregnant, he was nicer to her … even buying her a giant stuffed animal and gifts from Bath and Body Works, and allowing her to take prenatal vitamins, but eventually he started yelling at her and smacking her again,” the affidavit said.
The rapes and abuse continued while the girl was pregnant, according to court documents. She was prohibited from contacting her family or returning home.
On July 31, Jackson was taken off electronic monitoring after agreeing to plead guilty to a count of interference of custody in connection with the 2014 case, the affidavit said. The abduction and kidnapping charges were dropped as part of the plea deal. Jackson fled Ohio before his scheduled sentencing one month later.
On the same day of his plea, the minor and the mother of Jackson’s child managed to escape after he left the apartment during an argument, according to the court papers, which did not provide details about the victim’s condition.
Jackson then allegedly contacted the teen girl by cell phone and threatened to kill her and her family if she didn’t send him sexually explicit photos of herself on Facebook, according to the affidavit.
After Jackson missed his August sentencing, authorities tracked him through Texas and South Carolina via money transfers from his father.
On October 8, Jackson was arrested after giving a false name and trying to run away from drug task force officers during a check at a Utah bus station, according to Salt Lake City authorities.
Coercion and enticement of a minor to engage in illegal sexual activity carries a sentence ranging from 10 years to life in prison, the FBI statement said. Production of child pornography is punishable by 15 to 30 years in prison.
