Registered sex offender Charles Eric Waugh was arrested Monday night for violating probation after an investigation by SB Nation's Land-Grant Holy Land uncovered he'd had contact with scores of Ohio St. Buckeyes players and recruits, many of whom are teenagers.
Here's the timeline of events that led to his arrest:
April 30: Waugh tweeted messages meant to be inspirational at "129 current, former, and prospective student athletes with ties to The Ohio State University," Land-Grant Holy Land's Luke Zimmermann reported. When many of those athletes all started retweeting the same thing, the Ohio State portion of Twitter had some fun with the creepiness of mass-messaging high schoolers, but largely moved on. Tweeting athletes is typically against NCAA rules, but nobody really cares about NCAA rules.
Zimmermann uncovered photos of Waugh spending time with Ohio State player Devin Smith and recruit Alex Anzalone, making his minor NCAA violation now a potential actual NCAA violation. But that was far from all.
May 2: According to Zimmermann, Waugh's Twitter account was suspended twice during this period. Ohio State athletes were also warned via a mass text to avoid "Charles Eric Waugh, registered sex offender in Kentucky." "Block his access to your Twitter and Facebook accounts," another email obtained by Land-Grant Holy Land urged.
May 3: Zimmermann published a report on Waugh's background, including "five counts of possession of matter portraying sexual performances by minors." Waugh had previously pled guilty after being caught "downloading images of boys younger than 16 engaged in sexual acts." He was placed on five-year probation and branded a sex offender for 20 years, meaning, among other things, he could not have social media contact with minors. Obviously, he did just that.
Breaking NCAA rules is one thing, and a popular thing for enlightened college football fans to scold each other about. Violating probation is another thing entirely, and goes far beyond just about any NCAA rule ever.
May 4: Anzalone, a four-star linebacker recruit, publicly decommitted from Ohio State. Speculation instantly connected his decision to the Waugh incident, which was confirmed when Anzalone's father Sal tore into Ohio State for allowing Waugh access to his son. The school released a statement defending itself for its role in the story.
May 6: Sal Anzalone walked back his original comments about Ohio State. "There's nothing wrong with Ohio State; it's a great institution," he said. "When I said there was something wrong with Ohio State, I was talking about the visit - there was something wrong with the visit, not with Ohio State."
May 7: Waugh was arrested.
May 8: According to reports, Anzalone's recruitment is now led between Notre Dame, Florida, Stanford and Penn State, with the Buckeyes perhaps back in the running.
