A volunteer at a charter school has been arrested and charged with sexually molesting a young teenage boy, the second time in the past year the man has been implicated in harassing a minor. In addition to charges related to abusing the fourteen-year-old alleged victim, forty-seven-year-old Mark Citro also stands accused of impersonating a police officer.
According to court documents, Citro, who claims to be a minister and served as a mentor at the Friendship Academy of Engineering and Technology, became close to the victim and arranged sleepovers with the boy under the auspices of enabling the teen to walk to school. Police say Citro forced the boy to watch pornography, touched him inappropriately and performed lewd acts while the boy watched. The boy's mother, who has not been named by press due to the nature of the charges, confronted Citro about the alleged ongoing molestation. When questioned, Citro told the woman that he was an investigator working with both city, state and federal agencies to apprehend child molesters and that the boy had seen him doing research. To support these claims, he showed her badges and firearms.
A subsequent search of Citro's home is said to have turned up a registered handgun, Mace, handcuffs, and "several badges for security and special investigation companies." Police also seized technical equipment to be analyzed. Baltimore City Police Department spokesman Anthony Guglielmi commented to press on the alleged deception:
"He'd dress as a police officer, he had badges, said that he worked with the Baltimore City Police and State Police and the FBI to put child predators behind bars, and it turns out this individual was a child predator himself."
Citro is currently being held on charges of sex abuse of a minor, assault, solicitation of a minor and impersonating a police officer. It is not clear whether he has been assigned or has retained a Maryland solicitation lawyer to face the bevy of charges, and he has not been granted bond. Citro does not have a criminal record, but in April, a Maryland court issued a protective order against him to a different woman and her son amid accusations of inappropriate behavior and breached boundaries. Police say that both that woman and the mother of the victim in the criminal case are blind.
This article is presented by Price Benowitz, LLP, serving Virginia, Maryland and Washington DC. For more information, please visit our Maryland DUI Lawyers and DC Criminal Lawyer websites. You can also visit ourMaryland personal injury website.
