AKRON, Ohio — An Akron man is being accused of raping several children while babysitting in three Northeast Ohio communities.
25-year-old Timothy Luna of Akron was indicted by a Summit County grand jury on the following charges:
- Six Counts of Rape
- Three Counts of Gross Sexual Imposition
- Importuning
Investigators say Luna posed as a babysitter on Care.com, a website that allows families to hire babysitters.
"We first became away of Mr. Luna and what was alleged that he had done when the one victim's mother came up and filed a report here in Parma Heights," explained Det. Eric Taylor during a Friday afternoon briefing.
Taylor says that the report that was filed in June accused Luna of assaulting a 6-year-old boy during a period between December of 2021 and February of 2022.
After detectives received the information, it led to other incidents to be uncovered involving Luna. Both in Summit County, one with a 9-year-old in 2018 and another with a 13-year-old in 2021.
You can watch the Parma Heights Police Department briefing in the player below:
Officials warned that you need to have a heightened sense of awareness when using online websites like care.com.
Anyone who had Luna as a babysitter is asked to contact their local police department or one of the following detectives:
- Det. Eric Taylor – Parma Heights Police Department – 440-884-1234
- Det. Kelly Brown – Akron Police Department – 330-375-2552
- Det. Byron Cadwell – Summit County Sheriff’s Office – 330-643-2181
Luna's arraignment was held on Sept. 19. The pretrial hearing for Luna is scheduled for Oct. 24.
Care.com provided the following statement to 3News' Neil Fischer following the announcement of Luna's indictment:
“We are horrified by this report and our thoughts are with any impacted family. We take the safety of our community very seriously which is why we require all caregivers to complete a background check before they can engage with families on our platform. This individual has been removed from our site, and we’ve taken steps to block him from ever re-enrolling. We have been in contact with law enforcement and are prepared to assist however we can and as this is an active investigation, we won’t comment further.”
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