Howell

        As authorities investigate allegations that as many as 20 boys in two counties may have had contact with an Erlanger carnival worker, worried parents are seeking advice from police and health professionals.

        Their worries surfaced when a 40-year-old Covington woman was charged last Thursday with assaulting the Erlanger man after she claimed he was a pedophile and said she “shot him where it counts so he won't ever touch another child again.”

        The mother of five, who The Enquirer is not identifying to protect her 13-year-old son, remains in the Kenton County Detention Center in lieu of $20,000 cash bond.

        Police are investigating allegations that Larry Eugene Howell, 40, — the man shot in the groin and abdomen — may have had improper contact with as many as 20 children in Kenton and Campbell counties. Mr. Howell remains in fair condition at University Hospital after undergoing surgery last week to repair damage to his bowels and spleen.

        Mr. Howell's attorney, J. David Bender, has declined interview requests for his client. He also has declined to comment on the allegations made by the woman charged with assaulting him.

        “We've heard from some parents who are concerned that their children walk by Mr. Howell's house on their way to and from school,” Erlanger Police Chief Greg Sandel said Monday. “We told them if they're worried, they should have their kids take another route.”

        Chief Sandel said Monday that investigators from Erlanger, Covington and Kenton County are interviewing children.

        “Initially, we thought it was just something small here in Erlanger and Elsmere,” Chief Sandel said.

“Now we're teamed up with investigators from Covington and Kenton County, and we have investigators from both of those jurisdictions working with us to determine where our potential victims are,” he said.

        Kathy Miller-Cox, the sexual abuse treatment director for the Family Nurturing Center covering eight Northern Kentucky counties, said she is receiving calls from worried parents whose children have visited Mr. Howell's house. She said she had done some crisis counseling with about six possible victims on Monday morning.

        “Just because they were at (Mr. Howell's) house doesn't mean that they are definitely victims,” Ms. Miller-Cox said. “My role in this is to talk to them, educate them, let them know who to contact and how to handle this.”

        Ms. Miller-Cox would not say where the possible victims were from, citing confidentiality.

        “I can say that we've heard from school officials and other counselors in the area who want to know how to talk with the children who may have been victims and how to proceed,” she said.

        At the time he was shot, Mr. Howell was out on $1,000 bond after police charged him with traf ficking in marijuana within 1,000 yards of a school (St. Henry Grade School) and possession of matter portraying a sexual performance by a minor.

        In August 2000, Mr. Howell was convicted of distributing obscene material to a minor in connection with an incident in which he picked up a boy in the same CVS parking lot where he was shot Thursday.

        He paid a $500 fine and served no jail time.

        Evidence removed last week from Mr. Howell's home in the 4400 block of Dixie Highway included 25 pictures of naked boys, 150 negatives and a computer.

        Mr. Howell had been a volunteer and former employee of Be Concerned, a Covington-based agency that provides food to low-income families.

        “Larry was a volunteer here for two years, then he was employed for one year as a warehouse (worker)/driver,” said Mary Jennings, Be Concerned's director. She said the agency “let him go in August” for reasons that had nothing to do with the current case.

        Bill Crockett, the Kenton County commonwealth attorney, said that the preliminary hearing for Mr. Howell's accused assailant is scheduled for Thursday before Kenton District Judge Martin J. Sheehan.

        Mr. Crockett said that he has not yet heard from the woman's attorney on whether his client plans to proceed with the preliminary hearing or waive her right to it and have her case sent directly to a grand jury.

        Mr. Crockett added that no discussions have been held on whether to amend the first-degree assault charge against the woman charged in the shooting of Mr. Howell. The felony carries a penalty of 10 to 20 years in prison upon conviction.

        Although he realizes that some in the public may be sympathetic to Mr. Howell's accused assailant, Mr. Crockett said that doesn't excuse her behavior.

        “You can't allow a system of vigilante justice,” Mr. Crockett said. “Taking the law into your own hands has been frowned upon ever since we became a country.”

        Mr. Howell's accused assailant told The Enquirer last week that she confronted her son when she learned of the latest charges against the man she'd considered a family friend.

        She said her 13-year-old son told her he had been repeatedly molested by Mr. Howell during the past 1 1/2 years.

        The woman said her son told her that he and other young boys had received expensive gifts from Mr. Howell and had accompanied him on camping trips and had gone swimming with him at the Drawbridge Inn in Fort Mitchell.

        Arnie Creinin, the general manager of the Drawbridge, said hotel records showed that Mr. Howell had been a guest “at least a couple of times within the past year.”

        How to protect your kids from sexual abuse

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