Zwick sentenced after child rape plea

TROY, Ohio (WDTN) - A trial set to begin Tuesday for a 30-year-old man charged with a raping a 10-year-old boy came to a quick end.

Before proceedings even began, Jason Zwick pled no contest to a charge of rape and was sentenced to 10 years to life.

Prosecutors said Zwick went to the Troy, Ohio home of Kenneth Brandt to rape Brandt's adoptive son after Zwick answered an online ad in which Brandt offered up one of his sons for sex.

"This is the most despicable thing I've ever had to deal with and I've had to deal with some ugly cases," says Miami County First Assistant Prosecutor Anthony Kendell.

Kenneth Brandt pleaded guilty in November to six counts of rape. He was sentenced to 60-years to life in prison in Miami County and 50 years to life in Montgomery County.

Zwick was charged with three counts of raping a minor under 13, but two were dropped as part of a plea agreement. Prosecutors say they still got the sentence they wanted.

"It was our conclusion that the three charges would merge and the maximum sentence would be 10 to life regardless so we didn't give anything away here," Kendell says.

A third man, Patrick Rieder, is also charged with rape in this case. He is set to go on trial in Montgomery County in February.

The Brandt case has gotten Troy police more involved in finding people exploiting children.

It started when the Internet Crimes Against Children Unit in Franklin County tipped off Troy police to Brandt's online ad.

Once Troy police got involved in the case, they decided to get the training to do their own Internet searching.

"There's got to be something that can be done to protect these children," says Troy Police Capt. Chris Anderson.

Now two computers at the department surf the web looking for child pornography and predators, the same as any officer would drive the streets searching for suspicious activity.

Police have only done the searching for a few months, but say they've already busted a few people in Miami and surrounding counties.

"It's not like they all moved here," Anderson says. "We've just been now able with technology to find out who they are."

Police didn't want to give away how the searches work, but tell 2 NEWS the Internet has given them a trail to follow in catching the people behind child pornography.

"It's made it a little bit easier for us, where 25 or 30 years ago people were exchanging photos and if you didn't catch them with the photo you didn't know it was going on," Anderson says.