By Teresa L. Benns
SAGUACHE – Crestone resident David Freeman, 60, was extradited from Utah Monday and booked into the Saguache County Jail on charges of second-degree kidnapping and enticement of a child. Freeman left the state with a 12-year-old male juvenile June 23, prompting an AMBER alert and nationwide search for the boy.
Freeman is scheduled to appear in Saguache County District Court Aug. 15 for an advisement hearing.
The male juvenile was located with Freeman at a reservoir near the town of Panguitch, Utah on June 25. According to a Channel 31 KDVR/Denver report, a campground manager near the reservoir, Tom Adams, called law enforcement after a stranger showed up at his office in a pick-up.
The man said he had encountered both Freeman and the juvenile crouched in the dirt and dressed in nothing but sneakers up a nearby dirt road. Adams called the sheriff’s office and Garfield County Sheriff’s deputies arrested Freeman without incident, CBI reported. He was charged with first-degree felony kidnapping and lewdness.
According to Facebook posts, the boy did odd jobs for Freeman and the boy’s father had requested that Freeman not have contact with his son prior to the alleged abduction. The boy was later released into his father’s custody.
According to a report from the Saguache County Sheriff’s Office, the boy’s father, James Roe later admitted to a Colorado Bureau of Investigation agent, interviewing him after his son’s disappearance, that he disciplined his son with a belt on a regular basis. Roe’s girlfriend confirmed she had witnessed the incidents and did not agree with the form of discipline used.
Evidence of the abuse was discovered when doctors in Utah examined the boy following Freeman’s arrest. The juvenile told doctors in Utah his father “beat the s**t out of me” and would have him pull down his pants and lift up his shirt when the disciplinary sessions began.
He expressed the desire to live with someone else other than his father since he did not feel safe with him.  Utah authorities examining the boy provided photographic evidence of the alleged abuse.
A local law enforcement official confirmed the boy had wide belt marks on his legs when Saguache Social Services returned him to his father June 29. Following Roe’s arrest for child abuse, the boy was removed from his father’s custody and placed by Saguache Social Services with a family friend.
Saguache Social Services Director Linda Warsh said in a July email her office is carefully monitoring the situation and is addressing concerns regarding the boy’s care.