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A former child specialist was arrested Tuesday by the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office following accusations that he molested a teenage client at the residential addiction treatment program where the man worked, according to authorities. 

Corey Hodges, 34, of Palm Coast, was fired by Stewart-Marchman-Act Behavioral Healthcare after the allegations surfaced earlier this month. While no other criminal offenses were uncovered during the investigation, other teenage girls at the program said that Hodges was a pervert who would stare at their bodies, make inappropriate sexual comments and purposely drop things so that he could watch them bend over to pick them up.

Hodges is facing one charge each of lewd or lascivious molestation and lewd or lascivious conduct, according to a Volusia County Sheriff's Office press release. 

The victim is a 15-year-old girl who is a client at the Residential Adolescent Program run by Stewart-Marchman-Act.

Hodges started working at the Daytona Beach facility in February. Earlier this month, the girl disclosed that Hodges had molested her two times last month while she was in her room at the RAP program. On both occasions, the victim said, Hodges touched her breasts under her shirt and also rubbed her over her clothes and kissed her on the lips. Both times, she said, Hodges told her not to tell anyone about it. On a third occasion, the girl said that after she broke her finger playing football, Hodges drove her to the hospital. On the way back, the victim said that Hodges rubbed her thigh and told her to pull up her shorts, but she refused, and nothing more happened.

Investigators with the Sheriff’s Office’s Sex Crimes Unit interviewed other teenage girls at the program.

One, a 17-year-old, told investigators that Hodges would ask her for hugs, made comments about other girls’ bodies and talked about beating up a boy she was dating because Hodges was jealous.

An 18-year-old girl said Hodges told her that she should be a stripper because she had a nice body.

And a 14-year-old girl revealed to investigators that while she was going through heroin withdrawal, Hodges ordered her to get out of her bed even though she told him that she was naked. She got up and tried to cover herself with a blanket, but she said that Hodges ordered her to drop it.

During questioning by investigators, Hodges denied the allegations. Surveillance video from inside the facility showed Hodges going into one of the girls’ rooms, in violation of staff policies. He also violated their policies when he drove the girl to the hospital instead of having a female employee do it.

Investigators offered Hodges an opportunity to submit to a voice stress analysis, but his lawyer told him not to take the test, the report states. 

On Monday, investigators with the Sheriff’s Office’s Sex Crimes Unit obtained an arrest warrant for Hodges. He was arrested Tuesday by the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office and transported to the Volusia County Branch Jail, in Daytona Beach, where he’s being held on $60,000 bond.

Hodges had no previous record, according to the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office website.

Any other victims or anyone with information about Hodges is asked to call the Sheriff’s Office’s Sex Crimes Unit at 386-323-3574.

Three charges filed against gas station robber; court date set
The State Attorney’s Office filed three robbery-related charges Tuesday against Aaron Dean Kinney, who was arrested in July after a string of robberies of Flagler County gas stations.

Assistant State Attorney Joshua Davis is assigned to the case. He has filed one charge of attempted robbery with a deadly weapon and two charges of robbery with a deadly weapon against Kinney.

Kinney was arrested July 22 after he walked into the Mobile gas station, on State Road 100, and brandished a knife while demanding money from the clerk, according to a Flagler County Sheriff’s Office report.

When the clerk did not hand over any cash, Kinney then exited the store, but he was located minutes later traveling westbound on State Road 100, near Bulldog Drive (by Flagler Palm Coast High School).

Kinney was also connected to two other robberies the weekend of July 21, in Flagler County.

In all three incidents, the robber used a knife to threaten the clerk.

No one was injured in any of the incidents, according to the Sheriff’s Office.

An arraignment has been scheduled for 9 a.m. Tuesday, Sept. 4, before Judge Raul Zambrano, in Courtroom 401, at the Flagler County Courthouse.

Sheriff’s Office searching for missing Palm Coast man
The Flagler County Sheriff’s Office is seeking the public’s assistance in locating a 27-year-old Palm Coast man who has been missing from his home since July 11.

Aleksey Ravitskiy was last seen at his home on Fenimore Lane by his mother just before she went to bed at around 11 that night. When she awoke on July 12, Ravitskiy was gone.

He left his cell phone and did not take any money. He suffers from a health condition and has been off his medication for some time.

Ravitskiy is 5 feet, 10 inches tall, with brown eyes and brown hair.

No clothing description is available. He may be on his way to Brooklyn, N.Y., or to North Carolina.

If you locate Ravitskiy, contact Sheriff’s Office detective Roger Spires at 386-313-4911.

— Andrew O’Brien contributed to this report.

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