School volunteer charged with child sex abuse

Mark A. Citro (seen here on his profile picture on Facebook) met the boy and his mother through the Friendship Academy of Engineering and Technology, police said. (Clarification: Schools officials are saying that Citro already knew the family and worked at the school mentoring only that boy.) He told them he was a minister at a Harford Road church, as well as an investigator who worked with the city and state police as well as the FBI to "turn in child predators," said Anthony Guglielmi, the police department's chief spokesman.

Citro is accused of befriending the boy and having him stay over at the house to assist his mother, who is legally blind. The boy told investigators that Citro made him watch pornography, and fondled him and masturbated in front of him.

Police executed a search and seizure warrant at his home in the 2800 block of Louise Avenue and found a registered .38 caliber handgun, handcuffs and mace, and several badges for security and special investigation companies.  Police also seized computers, which will be analyzed.

On Citro's Facebook page, he frequently posted updates about missing children and "friended" accounts for parents looking for lost children. He lists his employer as "God" and describes his occupation as an evangelist and youth minister.

Court records show that Citro has no prior record of arrests, though a woman gained a peace order requiring him to stay from her in April. In that case, the woman said Citro was "someone who befriended my son. Now he has overstepped his boundaries." There were no allegations at that time of sexual abuse.

It was not clear whether the protective order involved the same family alleging sex abuse. The Sun does not identify alleged victims of sexual abuse.

In appealing that protective order, Citro provided private emails sent between him and the boy's parents in which they said he had grown too close to their son and was taking advantage of problems in the child's life. He denied the claims – interspersing his remarks with scripture, he threatened to revoke their marriage license and claimed to know a judge who he could talk to if they sought intervention from the courts.

"The jig is up," he wrote. "God has his hands on [the boy], and God would not have brought he, with the spiritual gifts that he has, with me, with the spiritual gifts that I have, that compliment each others [sic] gifts, if He didn't want us together.

"You said my job was done with [the boy], but that is not your call, but God's."

He said he had been a mentor to the boy's father and wrote on in the margins of the e-mail: "This is the thanks I get."