By Sharon Coolidge
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Former Channel 9 reporter Stephen Hill gave four teenage boys a $2,000 check to keep quiet after the boys said they discovered they had sex with Hill while blindfolded, according to a police affidavit filed Thursday in Hamilton County Common Pleas Court.

"He actually gave them money to buy their silence," Assistant Hamilton County Prosecutor Rick Gibson said.

The revelation came during a hearing in which Hill's attorney, Ken Lawson, tried to have evidence gathered in a search of Hill's home Feb. 27 thrown out, saying the search was illegal.

The boys had thought they were having sexual relations with a woman, but later discovered it was Hill, court records said.

A Hamilton County Municipal Court judge should never have signed the search warrant because the affidavit prepared by police did not connect the crimes Hill is accused of to his Avondale home, Lawson said.

Gibson argued that the law allowed a judge to use common sense when granting a search.

Hamilton County Common Pleas Judge David Davis won't decide for three weeks whether the search was done properly, giving Gibson time to respond in writing to Lawson's arguments.

Hill, 45, faces a June trial on eight charges of sexual battery and four charges of unlawful sexual conduct with a minor. He remains jailed in Hamilton County.

Hill was involved in a mentoring program during which the four boys - three brothers and a cousin - were in his care, according to Cincinnati police. During their time together, Hill is accused of blindfolding the victims, presenting himself as a woman and engaging them in various forms of sexual conduct, officers wrote in the affidavit to obtain a search warrant.

Hill often used an orange silk shirt as the blindfold, the victims told officers.

During one sexual encounter, one of the victims noticed a video camera concealed under a pile of clothing, the affidavit said.

Officers wrote that when the victims confronted Hill in a recorded telephone conversation, Hill offered them money for their silence.

The victims gave police a personal check drawn on Hill's account and signed by Hill for $2,000, according to the affidavit.

Based on that information, officers told the judge they had to immediately search Hill's home to guard against evidence being moved or destroyed.

When officers went to Hill's home, they said, he slit his wrists and throat and dumped videos in buckets filled with cleaning solution.

Among items seized were an orange shirt and lubricant, according to the search warrant.

The search warrant was sealed, but Lawson filed it as part of his motion to have the search thrown out of court.

E-mail scoolidge@enquirer.com