Ex-Fostoria school board member indicted on sex charges

1/19/2008

URBANA, Ohio - A former member of the Fostoria school board is to be arraigned Jan. 29 in Champaign County Common Pleas Court on 11 felony charges stemming from accusations that he attempted to have sex with a 14-year-old girl he met online.

The "girl" turned out to be a detective with the Champaign County Sheriff's Office.

William J. McGough, 37, was arrested Dec. 18 after he drove to Urbana, about 80 miles south of Toledo, to meet her.

On Thursday, Mr. McGough was indicted by a Champaign County grand jury on one count of attempted unlawful sexual conduct with a minor, one count of importuning, two counts of disseminating matter harmful to juveniles, two counts of pandering obscenity, and five counts of possession of criminal tools.

Investigators said Mr. McGough began talking online with the detective posing as the 14-year-old girl on Dec. 13, and that those conversations eventually became sexual in nature.

Mr. McGough is accused of sending several photos of himself, including some of his genitalia, to the undercover officer.

When Mr. McGough went to Urbana to meet the girl at a location where he believed she lived, deputies arrested him and confiscated from his vehicle a laptop computer, lingerie, a digital camera, compact discs, and a box of condoms.

Fostoria City Schools Superintendent Cynthia Lemmerman said Mr. McGough was appointed to the school board in December, 2005, to fill the unexpired term of Jeff Shiff, who resigned his seat. Mr. McGough then ran unsuccessfully in November for election to the school board.

Ms. Lemmerman said that after Mr. McGough's Dec. 18 arrest he did not resign from the school board, but the board had no meetings or business to transact between then and Dec. 31, when his term ended.