Man pleads innocent to child endangering

Neither child was harmed.

STAFF REPORT

NEWTON FALLS — A 60-year-old city man pleaded innocent Monday in Newton Falls Municipal Court to a charge of child endangering.

Gerald Williams Jr., 60, of the Newton Village Apartments on Ridge Road, is accused of asking a boy at a school bus stop near his home Feb. 3 to go inside his apartment to look at something.

Williams pleaded innocent to the first-degree misdemeanor child-endangering charge Monday and will return to court Feb. 23. If convicted, he could be sentenced to up to six months in jail.

Police said a parent of a child at a bus stop noticed Williams on Feb. 2 walking around near the bus stop.

The next day Williams reportedly walked around near the bus stop again, and this time, he asked a young boy at the bus stop if he wanted to go inside his apartment, police said.

That’s when the parent called police. The man who called was not the boy’s parent, said Sgt. Rick Lisum of the Newton Falls Police Department.

Williams is in Trumbull County Jail in lieu of $1,500 bond.

Also Monday morning, Newton Falls police received a report of a similar incident involving a 13-year-old girl waiting at her bus stop who said a man in a silver minivan asked her if she wanted a ride.

Both incidents occurred at about 8 or 9 a.m., and neither child went with the adult, Newton Falls police said.

The incidents have caused the Newton Falls school district to issue reminders to parents to be wary of strangers.

David Wilson, Newton Falls superintendent, said the school resource officer, Sherry Bailey, helped gather information from both students after the incidents and has given presentations in recent days to students about such dangers.

The school district’s bus drivers have also been advised to watch for such incidents more closely, Wilson said.