Six Youths Taken from Adoptive Home After One Calls Into Podcast with Terrifying Story
To the world, Hayim Cohen projected an image of a joyful, if unconventional, Texas family in which a single man takes in nine foster sons and raises them in a household filled with Jewish traditions.
New allegations paint that picture as a façade that hid a troubling story.
“This was a household of boys that were extremely abused and neglected, groomed. They were threatened. They were in fear of their safety, and he utilized a grooming of the community,” Harris County District Attorney’s Office prosecutor Janna Oswald said in court Friday, according to KTRK-TV.
“His grooming was not just of a child, but also the people around the children in the most offensive way,” Oswald said.
Cohen was arrested earlier this month and charged with continuous sex abuse of a child and sexual assault of a child under 17 years old, according to KXXV.
KTRK reported that on Friday, eight new charges were filed against him.
Hayim Cohen, the man accused of abusing his adopted sons, was back in court this morning to face several new charges after more of his sons came forward. ⁰
Prosecutors read allegations of sexual assault & physical abuse.⁰
The judge denied bond until a future hearing. @KHOU https://t.co/z1yRXvhGSI pic.twitter.com/5Id3HYuP4S— Adam Bennett (@AdamBennettKHOU) February 24, 2023
Further, six of the nine boys — ages 9, 10, 14, 15, 16 and 19 — have been removed from Cohen’s house, according to Child Protective Services, KXXV reported.
According to court documents, a 17-year-old, who was not named and who said he was Cohen’s son, called into a podcast earlier this month and alleged he and some of his brothers had been abused, using the term “rape.”
The teen said the abuse began when he first came to the house where he was living at the age of 11.
The caller said Child Protective Services had investigated the household eight times, with nothing done.
The caller said “every time that CPS is involved that [Cohen] bribes or scares him and his brother,” documents said.
He noted that one brother ran away and was brought back, and at the time, they all spoke against the brother when interviewed by the Children’s Assessment Center.
KXXV reported that Cohen had been free on bond after facing a charge of indecency with a child concerning a foreign exchange student from Spain who lived at the house.
A Houston man who adopted 9 boys has been charged with multiple counts of sexual abuse of a child. Police learned about the allegations against Hayim Cohen after one of his adoptive sons told podcast listeners he’d been sexually assaulted since he was 11. https://t.co/QiM6CfAxTO
— KHOU 11 News Houston (@KHOU) February 17, 2023
The teen told investigators that “everything [Cohen] does is fake,” documents said.
Cohen uses his wheelchair “when people come over or when he is in public,” according to the documents.
On his website, Cohen proclaimed, “I’m a single Father who has Adopted Nine amazing children. There ages are 22,20,19,18,16,15,14,10, & 8!!!! (wow try saying that in one breath LOL).”
“In our home, there is truly never a dull moment. And I love it! I believe every moment whether good or bad should be cherished. We most definitely face challenges daily. And at the end of the day, we are thankful for each and every one of them. We have all learned that challenges are nothing more than learning experiences.”
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