ST. CLAIRSVILLE, Ohio — The former chief executive of a Belmont County residential treatment center for children and adolescents faces federal child pornography and coercion charges that were unsealed Monday in Columbus, federal prosecutors said.
Randall J. MacKendrick, 59, of St. Clairsville, is charged with possessing child pornography and attempted coercion and enticement of a minor, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Ohio. The possession charge is punishable by up to 20 years in prison; the coercion charge carries at least 10 years and up to life in prison.
MacKendrick served as CEO of Fox Run Center for Children and Adolescents in St. Clairsville. The facility treats boys ages 5 to 12 and girls ages 12 to 17, prosecutors said.
According to the criminal complaint, the case began in June, when MacKendrick started communicating online with a North Ridgeville police officer who was working undercover and posing as a 14-year-old girl. Prosecutors say the exchanges continued into August, were sexually explicit, included offers of gifts, and repeatedly sought an in-person meeting.
In July, MacKendrick traveled to central Ohio in an attempt to meet the fictitious teenager at Polaris Fashion Place, Tanger Outlets and a Holiday Inn, according to the complaint.
In August, he traveled to South Central Park in Lorain County for a planned meeting and was arrested on local charges after leaving the park, prosecutors said. Officers searching his vehicle found multiple sex toys, several condoms and three cell phones, according to the complaint.
Also in August, Belmont County sheriff’s detectives searched MacKendrick’s office and residence, and a forensic analysis of his electronic devices turned up images and videos of child sexual abuse material, prosecutors said.
MacKendrick was released on bond in the local case. In September, he was arrested again after investigators learned he allegedly had been in contact with a 17-year-old girl who was a former patient at Fox Run, prosecutors said. His bond was increased and he was released again.
In October, FBI agents learned MacKendrick is a suspect in the May kidnapping and rape of a 14-year-old girl in Perry County, prosecutors said. His DNA matches DNA recovered from the victim, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. That investigation is still ongoing.
Federal agents arrested MacKendrick on Saturday in West Virginia and transferred him to the Southern District of Ohio. He appeared in federal court in Columbus on Monday for an initial appearance, and the federal charges were unsealed at that time. Court records show he is represented by the federal public defender’s office and was ordered detained.
The charges were announced by Dominick S. Gerace II, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio; Jason Cromartie, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Cincinnati Division; the North Ridgeville Police Department; and Belmont County Sheriff James G. Zusack. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Emily Czerniejewski and Tyler J. Aagard are prosecuting the case, United States v. MacKendrick, case 2:26-mj-00664.
A criminal complaint merely contains allegations, and defendants are presumed innocent unless proven guilty in a court of law.
The case is part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched by the Department of Justice in 2006 to combat child sexual exploitation and abuse.
