Todd Clowery

By Megan Alley

Todd Clowery

Sun staff

A Batavia man and former assistant principal at Wilson Elementary School in Anderson Township was recently indicted on charges stemming from an incident where he allegedly touched and took pictures of women and children at the Eastgate Meijer.

The Clermont County Court of Common Plea charged Todd Clowery, 50, with one count of gross sexual imposition, a third degree felony, attempted gross sexual imposition, a fourth degree felony, attempted sexual imposition, a fourth degree misdemeanor, voyeurism, a first degree misdemeanor, attempted sexual imposition, a fourth degree misdemeanor, and obstruction of official business, a second degree misdemeanor.

The incident, which took place on Aug. 8, 2017, involves five separate victims, assistant prosecutor Scott O’Reilly said.

“So this is from him photographing and either touching or getting extraordinarily close to touching children and other women at the Meijer in Eastgate,” O’Reilly described. “He was in the store and he was observed by another customer because of his peculiar behavior, and the other individual observed him touch a child under the age of 13, which is one of the counts.”

He added, “In addition to that, we also got thousands of pictures out of his cell phone of similar type of conduct, where he’s photographing women and children.”

The last charge — obstruction of official business — deals with Clowery’s providing law enforcement with a false name and false social security number.

This isn’t Clowery’s first run-in with the court; in 2006, he, was charged with gross sexual imposition, which was amended to assault, O’Reilly said.

“As part of that case, I know he was ordered to forfeit his teacher’s license,” he added.

Clowery’s most recent case has been assigned to Judge Jerry McBride.

He’s currently out on a $100,000 surety bond, and his pre-trial is set for Jan. 8.

Clowery’s most serious charge carries a tier two sex offender registration and a potential five years in prison.

O’Reilly praised the witness who to action to bring Clowery’s alleged actions to authorities.

“There’s always that old adage that if you see something, say something, and that’s what happened here. Somebody actually involved themselves to the point where they monitored his behavior and made sure that the appropriate authorities knew what had happened, and without that kind of involvement, without somebody actually taking the time to make sure that this doesn’t continue to happen, we may not have known about it,” he said.