Virginian Arraigned on Charges of Sex With Boy

A 31-year-old Virginia man was arraigned Wednesday on felony sex charges after authorities found a 12-year-old Palm Springs boy--whom he apparently befriended through a telephone chat line--hiding in a closet in the man’s home over the weekend.

The two had met through a 900-number telephone chat line called “Hollywood’s Hell Hole,” in which callers record profiles of themselves and leave telephone numbers for further contact.

The boy and Roland L. Iliff made direct contact with one another by phone and when the boy indicated he was having difficulties at home, Iliff provided the boy with a bus ticket to travel to Virginia, police said.

The boy’s parents are separated.

The boy’s father reported the youth missing Sept. 4 after the youngster left a message that he was going to see an Angels baseball game with a friend and did not return.

Using telephone calling card records as a road map to track the boy’s movements, police investigators went to Iliff’s home Sept. 22. Iliff said he had put the boy back on a bus for home that day, and there were no signs of foul play, police said.

But FBI agents, conducting their own investigation, interviewed Iliff last Thursday and, with his permission, searched his house Friday, when they found the boy hiding in a concealed space beneath a stairwell.

Because the door was not locked, it was initially unclear whether he was trying to voluntarily avoid discovery or was coerced into hiding by Iliff.

After returning home over the weekend, the boy told investigators he was ordered to stay in the closet and remain quiet, authorities said.

The FBI, which is still investigating the case for possible violation of federal law, encouraged local police to pursue their own investigation of possible violation of state criminal laws, said Fairfax County police spokesman Warren Carmichael.

After being interviewed by Fairfax police investigators Tuesday, Iliff--a part-time tutor and grocery store clerk--was arrested on two counts of committing sodomy on a child under 13 and one count of aggravated sexual battery, Carmichael said.

He would not discuss what information or evidence police obtained that led to the arrest, except to say that “it was not necessarily based on anything the kid said.”

Iliff was not known to police for similar crimes, Carmichael said.

On Wednesday, Iliff was arraigned in Fairfax County General District Court, assigned a public defender and ordered held in jail on $150,000 bond. A judge will decide Nov. 7 whether the case should go to a grand jury for an indictment, Carmichael said.

The FBI has not yet decided what charges, if any, will be pursued, a spokesman for the FBI in Washington said Wednesday.