John Cogan case UPDATED
From Middleton, Ohio, foster parent John Cogan, 45, was arrested on a warrant June 10, 2011 for sexual battery, a third-degree felony, for allegedly molesting his foster child, a girl now aged 16, since 2005.
“The charge stems from a more than three-month investigation by Middletown police, which began after a 16-year-old girl told neighbors March 5 that her foster father was molesting her.”
“It took several months to work through the claims made by the girl and Cogan, Shuemake said. Prior to December, the family was living in West Chester Twp. The girl told police she’d never discussed the abuse with anyone but her foster mother, who allegedly accused her of lying.
“She said she had just been bounced around from one foster home to the next and she got to a place where they wanted her and she didn’t want to move anymore so she put up with it,” Shuemake said.
Jeff Centers, executive director of children services, said his staff is working with police on the investigation. He said the girl was placed in the home prior to the agency increasing its background checks. However, Cogan has no known felonious criminal history — meaning it’s unlikely there would have been “red flags” about placing the girl in the home, he said.”
“Cogan has been released from Middletown City Jail but could not be reached for comment. A preliminary hearing has been set for 1:30 p.m. Monday in Middletown Municipal Court.”
Foster parent accused of abuse
[Middletown Journal 6/16/11 by Jessica Heffner]
Update: Middletown Municipal Court Records show that the case was bound over to Butler County Court in late June 2011. Butler county records show that a 10% CASH BOND of $1000 was posted by Kristan Cogan on 6/30/11.
On 8/31/11, it appears that the Grand Jury did not indict and 8 counts of sexual battery were dismissed. No media stories or further details were found.
REFORM Puzzle Piece
The first comment in this post gives further unverified information to this case. If it is true, then honest representation was lacking by CPS to the Cogan family. Additionally the question of why this girl was removed by the system to begin with must be asked. Was her case a neglect case? Could services have been provided to the original family without removal? Please read Rally’s second comment on this post for why this case and all others remain in our archive.
The grand jury did not indict and this case was dismissed because there was sufficient evidence showing the girl had plotted the charges in an attempt to return to her birth mother. The birthmother and girl had a history of making similar accusations 3 other times prior….all in relation to custody issues. The evidence was staggering AGAINST THE TEENAGE GIRL. This family was victimized by the system not providing the family with all prior history and then by this girl and her birth family. It is a shame that a good man’s reputation can be smeared by an unjust system. You should consider updating your pages and removing those that are innocent. This family has suffered enough.
Thank you for sharing. How Could You cases are about injustices to anyone involved in the adoption or foster care system. We tag them with the name of either the alleged perpetrator, the proven perpetrator, the victim or orphanage/government etc in order to identify the case as we have hundreds. We will refer our readers to the information that you have provided. If you know of any other publicly available information that we can refer to, please let us know. Our cases remain here regardless of outcome-if your information is true, then the injustice was against John by the daughter AND against the daughter BY the system who separated her from her mother whom she supposedly wanted to get back to.