Former Athens County Deputy Pleads Guilty to Evidence Tampering Allegations

June 28, 2026

Former Athens County Deputy Jimmy Frank Childs Pleaded Guilty After Bellar Case Evidence-Tampering Allegations.

Former Athens County Sheriff’s Office Sgt. Jimmy Frank Childs saw his long law-enforcement career end after he was accused of interfering with the investigation into the Bellar family case, a disturbing child-abuse and cover-up investigation that exposed serious failures by adults and institutions that were supposed to protect children.

Childs, who had worked for the Athens County Sheriff’s Office for roughly 25 years and had also served as a school resource officer and D.A.R.E. officer, was arrested in May 2021 after prosecutors said he deleted a record of a phone call with Robert Bellar while investigators were executing a search warrant at Bellar’s home. Authorities also accused Childs of failing to notify a supervisor about the call and giving false information during the investigation.

According to ABC 6/WSYX, Childs was originally charged with felony counts of tampering with evidence and obstructing justice. The charges were connected to the investigation surrounding Serah Bellar and allegations of sexual and physical abuse within the Bellar household.

The criminal case against Childs ended with a plea agreement. WOUB reported that Childs pleaded guilty on July 1, 2021, to a disorderly conduct charge related to the Bellar case. The original felony charges were reduced as part of the deal, but the consequences for Childs’ law-enforcement career were immediate.

As part of the agreement, Childs was ordered to surrender his Ohio peace-officer certification, his employment with the Athens County Sheriff’s Office ended, and he agreed to testify in the prosecution’s cases against members of the Bellar family. WTAP reported that Athens County Prosecutor Keller Blackburn said the agreement concluded the investigation into allegations against Childs and stated plainly: “Childs’ career in law enforcement is over.”

The broader Bellar case later resulted in guilty pleas from Robert and Deborah Bellar, who pleaded guilty to engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity and endangering children. WTAP reported that Robert Bellar was sentenced to three years in prison and Deborah Bellar was sentenced to four years in prison. Prosecutors described the case as involving documented reports to child-protection agencies in 2017, 2018, and 2020, with no formal action taken until the later investigation.

Childs was also named as a defendant in a federal civil lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio. The docket, listed by Justia as Jane Doe v. Athens County et al., Case No. 2:22-cv-00855, named Athens County, Jimmy Childs, James Bellar, Dove Outreach, Robert Bellar, and Deborah Bellar as defendants.

In that lawsuit, Bellar alleged that Childs knew about abuse and failed to help her. WOUB reported that the lawsuit alleged Childs was a longtime deputy, a close friend of Bellar’s parents, and someone Bellar had turned to for help. Childs denied intentionally aiding the Bellars as part of his criminal plea agreement reporting, and the civil allegations should be understood as allegations unless and until proven in court.

In July 2023, Athens County Independent reported that Athens County and former deputy Jimmy Childs reached a $420,000 settlement with the woman formerly known as Serah Bellar. The settlement dismissed the county and Childs from the case. The agreement stated that the claims remained “disputed and unproven” and that the settlement was reached for economic and judicial-efficiency reasons, not as an admission of wrongdoing.

This case is a stark reminder that misconduct allegations involving law enforcement are not limited to street encounters, jail abuse, or excessive force. Sometimes the failure is quieter: a deleted call record, a hidden contact, a failure to report, or a trusted official who allegedly does not act when a vulnerable person asks for help.

For the public, the troubling part is not simply that a deputy was accused of deleting a record during an active investigation. It is that the underlying case involved children, repeated abuse allegations, and years of claimed institutional inaction. When a law-enforcement officer becomes part of the obstruction story instead of the protection story, public trust takes another hit.

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