I don't know whether to laugh at this one, or shake my head in disgust.

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McCOMB, Ohio (AP)-- A convicted child molester who accused his wife and two of her relatives of kidnapping and sexually assaulting him complains that they've turned him into a victim.

“Where I work, people know, and I have to face them. I get prank phone calls. A radio deejay in Toledo said they should get a medal for what they did. These women were torturing me,” Rodney Hosler said at his parents' house in this northwestern Ohio village.

Hosler, who denies ever molesting a child, told police that five women entered his apartment on July 26 in the town of Delaware, about 70 miles away. He said three of the women sheared his pubic hair and the hair on his head, assaulted him anally with a cucumber, and put a heat-producing ointment on his genitals.

They scribbled “child molester” with a black marker on several areas of his body, then drove him to McComb and dumped him outside a pizza parlor, clad only in a pink-and-green Minnie Mouse blanket.

“I am the victim, and I am being convicted,” Hosler told The Columbus Dispatch, which published the interview Sunday.

Hosler, 27, said he thinks the attack was part of his wife's plan to get out of their marriage. He said he now wants a divorce and custody of one of their two children.

Relatives said the women feared Hosler was again molesting the child whom he was convicted of molesting in 1994. Hosler was released in January after serving his full two-year prison term for molesting the girl, who is now 7.

He denies that he ever molested the girl, saying he only pleaded guilty to spare the child a court battle.

Hosler complained that people all over the country know about the incident.

“My brother called and said it was on the news where he lives in New Jersey,” Hosler said. “What's next? Is Oprah Winfrey going to walk up?”

“At least my family thinks of me as a victim,” he said. “My friends are standing by me.”

Indicted on rape and kidnapping charges were his wife, Jewel Hosler, 28, of Delaware; her mother, Mary Franks, 44, of Sunbury; and Mrs. Hosler's aunt, Vickie Coulter, 39, of Delaware.

The other two women were not identified or charged.

Mrs. Hosler pleaded innocent and innocent by reason of insanity. Mrs. Franks and Ms. Coulter pleaded innocent. Each of the charges carries a possible three to 10 years in prison.

[August 11, 1997]