Man Assaulted Teen Who Allegedly Molested 5-Year-Old, Arrested

An Ohio man was arrested Thursday for assaulting a teenager who was allegedly molesting a five-year-old. After receiving overwhelming support for his actions from members of his community since, Rick Adams, 20, spoke out about his experience to multiple local news channels.

The incident took place in his Eastlake home. “I was doing laundry and I walked out and there was the 17-year-old and he had the five-year-old’s penis in his mouth,” he told Cleveland19, adding that witnessing something like that made him fly into a rage.

“I kinda blacked out,” Adams told Fox8. “I saw a 17-year-old molesting a five-year-old. I wanted to help the young boy and that was all I was thinking about was getting it stopped.”

He immediately pushed the teen off the child and proceeded to assault him, while calling for someone in the house to call 911. He then logged into his Facebook account and posted a video of the alleged molester covered in blood and being angrily asked to reveal what he was doing. The video has since been removed from the social media platform.

“I do regret posting it on Facebook but my intent was to show people that if you touch or hurt a child this could happen to you,” Adams said, adding that he did what anyone in that situation would have done.

“I want everyone to stop all the child offenders and predators out there. I don’t want any child to have to go through that. I am scared. I have a kid on the way and I do want to be there for my child’s birth and that’s the only thing that’s worrying me right now. I almost want to cry saying it,” he said.

While the 17-year-old was charged with rape, the police also charged Adams with felony assault. As soon as news of Adam’s arrest hit the news, the Eastlake Police was flooded with calls for his release.

“We have received numerous emails, phone calls and communications in which people have expressed their emotions and frustrations with the recent case that we had involving the investigation of a rape of a five year old and the assault of the accused 17 year old male. We truly understand the interest, passion and concerns with this type of case. It has been processed by the court and will continue to go through the system,” the police wrote in a Facebook post Sunday.

It added: “To attack people within the system to achieve a certain outcome is not what justice is about. We appreciate the impact that this story has had on the community and beyond but we expect people to be civil in expressing their disagreement and/or support of what has and will take place.”

Adams, who has no prior criminal record, was released on a $5,000 bond and was scheduled to appear before a judge in April. After getting released, he said he had asked the five-year-old if the teenager had touched him.

“He said that the 17-year-old had touched him right there [in the penis area] and that he had touched him the night before,” Adams said. The child was placed under protective custody.

A GoFundMe page has been set up to help Adams out with his legal costs.