Man accused of molesting child

Monday, January 30, 2006

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Cummings was arrested Saturday.

A cross-country search for a Texas man ended over the weekend in the Bay area.

The case started in the town of Waxahachie, Texas, south of Dallas-Fort Worth. Police there accuse Ronni Lynn Cummings, 39, of lewd and lascivious acts on a child.

Waxahachie police tracked Cummings to Largo in Pinellas County, where he lived with his mother at the Chaparral Apartments, 601 Rosery Road N.E., for the last two weeks. They notified Largo police, asking them to take Cummings into custody.

"The time frame was over a seven-year period on a particular child," said Largo Police Sgt. John Trebino. "Not only was he accused of [molesting the child], he's also accused of taking sexually explicit pictures of this molestation and putting them on the Internet for sale. This obviously is a person we don't want out and about, let alone in Largo."

Texas authorities confirmed the allegations, but Cummings' mother, Bonita Dunn, said it's hard to believe. Dunn said her son has been going to church and helping her take care of her three young children while visiting.

"It seems impossible to us that he would have done this," Dunn said. "I want this to get cleared up, so we hope he's found innocent so he can come home."

Cummings was not home when Largo police arrived at his mother's apartment, but Dunn volunteered to call him. The phone number was

Dunn helped police find her son.

traced to an address in Hernando County. The Hernando County Sheriff's Office took him into custody Saturday.

Investigators said there are no allegations or evidence of Cummings harming children in the Bay area. They did confiscate a computer he was using to set up a web site. The subject matter of that site is not known.

Cummings is in the Hernando County Jail waiting to be extradited back to Texas. He faces charges of aggravated sexual assault on a child, a first-degree felony in Texas. If found guilty, he could spend five years to life in prison.

Cummings' mother said her son wasn't hiding out in Largo. He was going in and out and visiting with friends, but Texas authorities said the reason he left Texas was because he knew they were looking for him.