Pills, pedophilia case to go to trial in August

Jul. 20—EDITOR'S NOTE — Contents of this story are disturbing. Reader discretion is advised.

Barring a last-minute plea deal, federal court records show a Wheelersburg man indicted in June 2020 in connection with a child-sex trafficking ring will be going to trial on Aug. 15.

Larry Dean Porter, 71, is one of two defendants left in the 10-member ring. Porter is accused of exchanging painkillers to women in order to molest children.

Porter's scheme came to a halt in March 2020, when the Jackson County (Ohio) Sheriff's Office arrested him in a sting up in Oak Hill after he thought he was going to pay for a 7-year-old girl, court records show.

Recently filed court records show Porter's reputation as a suspected child molester go back to the 1990s. Back then, one witness — who would later be implicated in the ring herself after records show photographs of her were uncovered in sexual positions with a child — reported that Porter plied her with weed whenever she came over to hang out with one of his daughters.

When the woman reached her early 20s, Porter switched over to providing oxycodone, records show. Once she ran up a drug debt, he forced her into sexual acts to pay them off, according to prosecutors.

The Vietnam veteran and retired mechanic preyed upon the weaknesses of drug-addicted women, according to prosecutors. He'd begin providing them pills, wait until they racked up a drug debt, then force them into sexual acts with him and his friends William David Cole and Frank E. Andrews, records show.

After doing that for a while, Porter would then entice the woman into providing a child relative — some as young as 5 years old — for him to rape, records show.

This basic scheme, according to a prosecutor's filing, dates back to 2001.

But it wasn't only the promises of money or drugs — prosecutors contend Porter also used the threat of opiate withdrawal (described by many as the flu times 1,000), threats to loved ones and beatings to gain compliance.

One incident described in recent filings ahead of the trial describe Porter sexually abusing a child at gunpoint.

While federal filings show the FBI investigation into Porter kicked off in 2019, Porter was almost caught in 2011, according to court records. Back then, a witness was there to buy drugs from Porter, but called the law on him after finding him sitting in a computer chair in his skivvies with a 5-year-old girl in her underwear as well, records show.

The mother of the child told police Porter was babysitting her child and no charges were filed, according to court records.

Like the other infamous Scioto County sex trafficking suspect Michael Mearan — who court records show had nothing to do with Porter besides briefly representing him in state court — Porter had accusations written against prior to his charges, all the way back in 2014, records show.

However, those allegations did not come in the form of a well-researched, journalistically sound newspaper article, but from a self-published book on Amazon called "The Scioto County Dean Feed," records show.

Defense attorneys have characterized the 2014 book as a rambling diatribe against Porter and a whole cast of Scioto County characters, accusing Porter of every evil to befall Scioto County in the last 50 years. The prosecution has vowed to not introduce any contents of the book into evidence, records show.

Joshua Aldridge, 38, is also expected to stand trial alongside Porter, records show. He's accused of providing two child victims in the case to Porter to sexually abuse, in order to feed his addiction.

His girlfriend fell into Porter's scheme after she began purchasing drugs from him, according to court records. His brother, Ralph Aldridge, is accused of helping to attempt to cover up Porter's crimes in the wake of his arrest and supplying Porter with marijuana.

Aldridge pleaded guilty in June 2021 to making false statements to federal law enforcement and received four years in prison.

Like most suspects in the case, Aldridge had no criminal history. Aldridge was married to Porter's daughter, Crystal Porter.

Crystal Porter, along with her sister Deanna, her father's cousin Erroll Wayne Porter Sr., Cole and Andrews, was accused of trying to clear out her father's house of any evidence relating to child sexual abuse material.

Most infamously, she, her sister and others tried to dig around his yard to find an SD card in a mason jar containing child sexual abuse material, records show.

Court records show Crystal Porter had moved away from the area to Columbus, where she worked at a bagel shop when she was indicted on charges of obstruction and lying to police.

She received two and a half years in prison in February 2022 for making false statements to police. Like her husband, she too had criminal record prior to the case.

Deanna Porter took a plea deal in March 2022 to making a false statement to police and is currently on bond awaiting sentencing.

Erroll Porter was sentenced to time served in April 2022 for witness tampering. Federal court records show like his cousin, he too was a Vietnam veteran and had worked as a truck driver up until the early 1990s when he suffered a back injury.

He opened a gun shop, which led to a dispute with Larry Dean Porter over a gun he'd sold to a family member, records show. A little before Larry Dean Porter got busted, Erroll had started reconciling with his cousin, records show.

Over the phone while Larry Dean Porter was in jail, Erroll allegedly discussed killing an informant in the case.

Prosecutors were pushing to send him up to four to five years, but the judge went with time served — a sentencing memorandum showed Erroll Wayne Porter is in poor health.

Andrews and Cole, both described as friends of Porter's, have both pleaded guilty to their part in the ring. Both men were accused of helping Porter acquire drugs, sleeping with the adult women in the case and transporting children to Porter's home, records show.

In the aftermath of the Porter's arrest, both were accused of removing electronic devices containing suspected child sexual abuse material from Porter's home.

Andrews pleaded guilty in July 2021 to sex trafficking through forcible compulsion and is currently awaiting sentencing. Cole held out until very recently, entering a guilty plea to the same on July 11.

Charity Rawlins has pleaded guilty on July 7 to a charge of a prostituting a child out to Porter in exchange for drugs, records show. That occurred between 2008 and 2012, according to court records

Her husband, Ronnie Rawlins, took a plea deal in June 2021 to conspiracy to to distribute oxycodone between 2009 and 2019.

Both have yet to be sentenced.

Jonathan Flagg, aka "Big D," pleaded guilty in June 2021 to a drug trafficking charge for his role as a major supplier to Porter. According to court records, Flagg would drive down to Tennessee once a month to fill out scripts at a pain clinic, then bring the pain killers back to Porter.

Porter would in turn sell them and payback Flagg, records show. While Flagg is charged with doing this cross-state trip between 2015 and 2020, federal court records show he popped up on police radar back in 2009 down in Florida for picking up large amounts of pills.

He is also awaiting sentencing.

Porter and Josh Aldridge will be tried before a federal judge in Columbus.

(606) 326-2653 — henry@dailyindependent.com