Largo Puppeteer Claims Innocence in Child Porn Case

The acting attorney for a Largo puppeteer accused of conspiring to kidnap a child, talking about cooking and eating children and possessing child porn says the suspect is innocent, TBO.com reports.

"It is his contention right now that he didn't do this, that he's not involved with this," said Eric Kuske, who helped represent Ronald William Brown in court Tuesday, according to the news site.

A federal judge granted Brown a continuance in Tuesday's bond hearing, TBO reports, and Kuske told the site the hearing could be next week. Kuske said he has not yet determined whether he'll accept the case.

Brown, 57, was off 142nd Street last week after agents said he chatted online with another man last year about kidnapping and eating children, describing how they would abduct them and cook their body parts on a stove.

A 29-page criminal complaint posted on WTSP 10 News' website show federal agents seized images of child pornography, children engaged in bondage and images of what appear to be dead children from Brown's home.

Brown allegedly told agents he discussed killing and eating a boy he knows at his church, but that "it was just a fantasy and he could never and would never hurt anyone."

According to the website for his business, Puppets Plus, Brown has been "entertaining throughout West Central Florida since 1991" and has performed at numerous schools, churches, private parties and events around St. Petersburg and Tampa.

Agents say Brown told them he helps out in the children's area of the church he attends and that "every Wednesday several children from his neighborhood and surrounding neighborhoods come to his house for pizza and he gives them all a ride to church in a van provided by his church."