Ohio Man Says Having Sex with Boys Is His Civil Right

An admitted pedophile in suburban Cleveland told a judge Wednesday that he did nothing wrong because having sex with children is part of his religion and is therefore protected by civil rights laws. Phillip Distasio, 34, of Rocky River, OH, told the judge that his apartment was a religious sanctuary, and smoking marijuana and having sex with children are sacred rituals. Distasio was appearing in court for a pretrial hearing for 74 charges of rape, drugs, and pandering obscenity to minors.

Distasio calls himself a "pagan friar," and he is representing himself in his trial. He told the judge, "I'm a pedophile. I've been a pedophile for 20 years. The only reason I'm charged with rape is that no one believes a child can consent to sex. The role of my ministry is to get these cases out of the courtrooms." Distasio said that his church is called Arcadian Fields Ministries, and some of his victims are actually members of his congregation.

Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Bill Mason said that officials were alerted to a possible problem when Distasio wanted to write a blog for the Lakewood Library. Staff there alerted Rocky River police, who began investigating and later arrested Distasio for molesting two disabled boys he was tutoring at his home. The Cleveland Plain Dealer reported that he is also accused of raping seven other autistic children at a Cleveland school for special-needs kids. The boys were all under 13 years old except one, which carries a mandatory sentence of life in prison if Distasio is convicted.

Perhaps the most disturbing element of the case against Distasio is that he was running a school from his apartment, called Class Cutters, that offered a curriculum for unique children. Students and parents alike chose the school from Distasio’s website as a place for special-needs children. But prosecutors say that the school was in essence a trap set to snare one victim after the next into Distasio’s den of sadism. Police found journals at Distasio’s apartment in which he described in detail his sexual escapades, and kept child pornography and videotapes of himself engaged in sex with boys. According to the journals, two of the boys were so helpless they could never tell anyone what Distasio had done to them.

"Like all predators," said Mason, "he used this one child to bring other children to him and that’s what was happening—that’s how he got his second victim." Prosecutors believe there may be even more victims. Meanwhile, Distasio told the judge that "not all pedophilia is bad, and sex [with boys] can be healthy." He says that his right to religious freedom is being challenged with these accusations, and pedophilia isn’t wrong according to his religious beliefs. But the judge told him that during his trial he must confine his arguments to secular laws. "If you want to challenge the law, that’s your right to do so," said Judge Kathleen Sutula. "But we’re going to follow the laws of Ohio in this courtroom."

Distasio’s trial is scheduled to begin September 11.