A 23-year-old ex-convict accused of pulling a cruel hoax by pretending to be a long-missing Illinois boy was charged Friday with making false statements to federal authorities.
The FBI said Brian Rini had made false claims twice before, portraying himself as a juvenile sex-trafficking victim.
The Medina, Ohio, man was jailed in Cincinnati on Thursday, a day after telling authorities he was 14-year-old Timmothy Pitzen, who disappeared in 2011 at age 6. The FBI declared Rini's story a hoax after performing a DNA test.
The charge should send a message about the damage such false claims can do, said U.S. Attorney Benjamin Glassman.
"It's not OK to do it because of the harm that it causes, the pain, for the family of that missing child," Glassman said.
Rini's story had briefly raised hope among Timmothy's relatives that the youngster's disappearance had finally been solved after eight long years. But those hopes were dashed when the test results came back.
"It's devastating. It's like reliving that day all over again," said Timmothy's aunt Kara Jacobs.
Rini was jailed for a bail hearing on Tuesday. His public defender did not immediately return a message. Rini could get up to eight years in prison.
Rini was found wandering the streets on Wednesday and told authorities he had just escaped his captors after years of abuse, officials said. He claimed he had been forced to have sex with men, according to the FBI.
When confronted with the DNA results, Rini acknowledged his identity, saying he had watched a story about Timmothy on ABC's "20/20" and wanted to get away from his own family, the FBI said.
Rini said "he wished he had a father like Timmothy's because if he went missing, his father would just keep drinking," the FBI said in court papers. A message left with Rini's father for comment was not immediately returned.
Glassman said authorities were skeptical early on of Rini's claim because he refused to be fingerprinted, though he did agree to a DNA swab. Rini also looks older than 14, but Glassman said investigators wanted to make sure "there was no opportunity missed to actually find Timmothy Pitzen."
Rini's DNA was already on file because of his criminal record. He was released from prison less than a month ago after serving more than a year for burglary and vandalism.
Brunswick Hills Police records show Rini was arrested in 2016 for lying about being forced to perform sex acts. According to the investigative report, Rini had accused his mother and her live-in boyfriend of "forcing him to have sex with his 12 year old sister." Police later arrested Rini after he admitted to falsifying the report.
"It didn't surprise me with Rini when this came up," Brunswick Hills Police Chief Tim Sopkovich said. "We've had a couple other falsification reports that had been filed here."
More recently in 2017, Rini had been arrested after he threw a destructive house party in a model home that he had pretended to be buying.
"He does have a personality where he's in this make-believe world. He went around prior to these parties at the model home and contacted the neighbors and introduced himself and told them he's moving in and he's a millionaire," Sopkovich said.
Rini was treated at an Ohio center for people with mental health or substance abuse problems, according to court papers.