December 11, 2008
Man who 'measured' kids enters guilty plea
Dubbed "the underwear measurer," Ben Hawkins pleaded guilty Wednesday to fooling parents into letting him be alone with children so he could ogle and touch them as he pretended to measure them in their underwear.
Hawkins, 44, of Springfield Township, pleaded guilty to 12 of the 19 counts against him and faces a maximum prison sentence of 44 years when he is sentenced Jan. 29 by Hamilton County Common Pleas Judge Robert Ruehlman.
Hawkins' original charges included sexual touching and kidnapping involving 11 victims ranging in age from 9 to 16.
Using the screen name "cincyteensandtweens," Hawkins convinced parents to meet him so he could measure children in their underwear as part of market research.
In reality, he used those incidents to fuel his sexual fantasies.
"There were no pictures, no cameras. It was all measuring, so to speak," Assistant Prosecutor Kevin Hardman said.
"He said he would retain the images in his head from the meeting and then go home and masturbate," St. Bernard Police Det. Mike Mathason told the judge Wednesday.
After one incident, police confiscated 21 computers from Hawkins' home and told him to stop. But Hawkins used spare parts to rebuild another computer and went online again to find subjects for his "market research."
Hawkins was arrested by St. Bernard police because some of the activity he admitted to Wednesday took place at Roger Bacon High when Hawkins was at the school participating in its alumni band.
Springdale police also were contacted by a family complaining of Hawkins' research.
A sting was set up where Hawkins met the family at a hospital - he was familiar with the hospital because of his treatment there for a medical condition - and tried to do the same thing.
He also did his "research" in an Amberley Village home.
As these incidents were happening, Hawkins was a registered sex offender following two previous convictions.
In one, he took photos of a minor while on the University of Cincinnati campus. In the other, he left notes for an underage retail worker, asking if he could take naked pictures of her.
At Hawkins' sentencing, his attorney Scott Rubenstein will call an expert witness who will testify about the kind of sex offender treatment Hawkins will need in prison
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