CINCINNATI – Did a Sedamsville man try to abduct a 10-year-old boy – a cousin's son - on his way to school? Or do police have the wrong man, as his wife claims?
The boy picked 34-year-old Mark Hall out of a photo lineup, police said. But Hall's wife says the accusations make no sense. And she and his attorney say Hall has an alibi.
The boy says Hall drove up next to him in a black panel van on Montana Avenue in Westwood on Dec. 10, according to a court affidavit. Hall told him to get in or he would "shoot up his house and harm his mother, brother and sister." After the boy refused, another person got out of the van and tried to grab the child, but he broke free and ran.
In court Tuesday, Hall and his wife disputed the boy's story. Hall said he was dropping off his own kids at school at the time and he doesn't own a black panel van.
"My husband drops our kids off to and from school every morning," Danielle Hall said.
Police confirmed that they couldn't find the van.
"He doesn't have a van of this sort. The police officers looked when they came and arrested him," Hall's attorney said. "It took about eight days for them-- for whatever reason--to charge this matter … He's telling me what I believe to be a legitimate alibi."
Hall's wife said they haven't talked to the boy's family in many years.
"Why would we be kidnapping this child? My husband isn't a mass murderer, pedophile or any of that," she said.
"It's going to come out that it's not true, but it's a shame that he's going to have to sit down there."
Hall is charged with abduction and is being held on $9,000 bond at 10 percent.
