Take Ronald Thomas, age 65, who allegedly made children strip and throw coins at each others' genitals.
The bizarre details can be found in a Denver Police probable cause statement on view below. According to the document, a nine-year-old girl who'd visited Thomas for several days told investigators that she and two other kids, ages nine and five, respectively, were told to remove their clothes. Next, Thomas is said to have directed one of the children to sit on her hands and knees before handing the others some coins and telling them to throw the money at the third child's genitals.
Among the rules? The coins that stayed on the target went to one child, those that missed went to another.
That's not all. While staying at the home, the girl told Thomas she wanted to watch a movie -- so he put on a pornographic one featuring adults getting on top of each other and making "a huffing noise," she said. At that point, she covered her eyes with a blanket.
Thomas allegedly responded by telling her that if she didn't watch the on-screen action, he'd inform her mother that she'd been bad.
Similar tales were repeated to investigators by the other two children, as well as the mother of one child, who said her daughter had claimed Thomas threatened to hurt the kids or their parents if any of them talked about what went on.
Shockingly, Thomas's story was quite different -- and not only because he claimed his actual name is Ronald Woolbright. Yes, the kids had thrown some coins around, but all of them were dressed, he insisted. And he said one of the kids had found the porn and began watching it -- but when he discovered it, he immediately turned it off.
At this point, the Denver District Attorney's Office appears to feel the children's story is more believable, since Thomas has been charged with unlawful sexual contact involving a child and promotion of obscenity to a minor, both felonies. He's free on a $10,000 bond. His first court date is July 2 -- and it won't be a game.
Look below to see a larger version of Thomas's memorable mug shot, followed by the probable cause statement.
Follow and like the Michael Roberts/Westword Facebook page.
More from our Colorado Crimes archive: "Jon Christopher Baker's alleged child porn stash: 30,000 photos, 1,400 videos."
