Cleveland, OH – The U.S. Marshals led Northern Ohio Violent Fugitive Task Force is pleased to announce the arrest of Florida fugitive Robert Boggs. Boggs, age 33, had been wanted by the Lake County Sheriff’s Department in Florida on warrants charging him with multiple counts of sexual battery of a child under 12 years of age, lewd and lascivious molestation of a child under 12 years of age and child abuse. Sheriff’s detectives in Lake County Florida, just outside of Orlando, filed the charges on October 10th when a young relative of the suspect was taken to a local hospital emergency room. The suspect immediately fled his residence when he found out that the child was in the hospital and the U.S. Marshals Florida Regional Fugitive Task Force was called in to assist with the investigation.
U.S. Marshal’s investigators in Florida conducted an intense investigation and they were able to identify several friends and relatives of the suspect who lived in Geauga County. Yesterday, they requested the assistance of the U.S. Marshals in northern Ohio and the task force immediately responded to the Middlefield, OH area to attempt to locate the suspect. At approximately 6:15 p.m., a suspect matching Boggs description was seen leaving the house of one of his distant relatives and officers followed him to Wal-Mart in Middlefield. When the suspect got out of the vehicle officers were able to clearly identify him and moved in for the arrest. The suspect was arrested without incident and was transported to the Geauga County Jail pending extradition proceedings. Over 15 task force members from Lake, Geauga, and Ashtabula Counties, along with the Middlefield Police Department and Geauga County Sheriff’s Office, assisted with the investigation and arrest.
U.S. Marshal Pete Elliott said, “This is another excellent example of how the teamwork of all the men and women, from all the agencies that belong to the Task Force, came together to put another child rapist behind bars where they belong.”
