Lodi man charged with exploiting Ohio girl
A California man investigated for trying to meet an underage girl for sex there now faces charges for taking images and videos during a sexual encounter with a teenager in Monclova Township, according to criminal charges filed in U.S. District Court in Toledo.
Jeremy D. Adams, 43, of Lodi, Calif., initially faced a federal charge of sexual exploitation of a minor in California’s Northern U.S. District Court, but it was transferred in May to Toledo’s federal courthouse.
Adams was indicted Wednesday by a federal grand jury with producing the explicit images and videos of a then 17-year-old Swanton girl on May 4 and 5, 2017, according to the charges.
Court documents state
Adams has no other ties to northwest Ohio. He was held Friday in the Lucas County jail pending arraignment Tuesday, and his lawyer, Tyler Walchanowicz, of Cleveland, declined to comment.
Adams caught federal investigators’ attention after an Oct. 15, 2019 encounter with police in Brentwood, Calif., when he tried to meet a purported 14-year-old girl.
Two juveniles had created a fake account on an online dating application and pretended to be the young girl. Over a two-week span, Adams allegedly engaged the girl in sexual conversations and arranged a time to meet her at a Starbucks, according to the criminal complaint filed in November.
The juveniles confronted Adams at a coffee shop and recorded the incident on their cell phones while chasing him from the store, court records state.
“The juveniles confronted Adams about the fact that he was there to pick up a 14-year-old girl, but Adams never responded to them and continued to run until he fell into a creek,” court documents say, adding Adams allegedly placed one of the juveniles in a headlock. Police responded to the scene and began investigating.
Detectives obtained a search warrant for Adams’ residence in California, where they collected 12 devices. While analyzing Adams’ phone and a hard drive, they found explicit images and video of Adams with a minor girl, according to the allegations.
Investigators determined the images were taken at the Baymont Inn at 10753 Airport Hwy., next to Eugene F. Kranz Toledo Express Airport, where Adams used Army identification to check into the room, the criminal complaint says. Further analysis of his text messages determined the Swanton girl was a minor at the time.
Federal investigators interviewed the girl on Nov. 5. She stated she met Adams on Tumblr, a social media website, when she was 15, and blocked him about two years later.
Within two days of chatting with her, Adams allegedly asked if she wanted “him to be her boyfriend,” and he asked her to send nude photos and videos of herself, court documents state.
In 2017, around the time of the girl’s 17th birthday, Adams was living in North Carolina and traveled to Ohio. He allegedly picked her up and drove her to the motel, where they had sex and he used his phone to shoot photos and videos.
“[The girl] stated that Adams kept talking about how he had driven nine hours to see her, so she consented to having sex with him because she felt bad,” the allegations say.
In July, 2020, the girl unblocked Adams on social media. He immediately contacted her and said “he was being investigated for sexually trafficking people and if she was contacted by law enforcement not to tell them anything about her age when they met,” in order to “protect him,” according to court records.